Vision Antarctic Astronomy

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A Visionfor European Astronomy and Astrophysicsat the Antarctic station Concordia, Dome CIn the next decade 2010-2020

ARENAPrepared by the

consortium in fulfilment

of the work programme

of the EC-FP6 contract

RICA 026150

antarctic research,

a european network

for astrophysics


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Silent with star-dust, yonder it lies -

The Winter Street, so fair and so white;

Winding along through the boundless skies,

Down heavenly vale, up heavenly height.

Faintly it gleams, like a summer road

When the light in the west is sinking low,

Silent with star-dust! By whose abode

Does the Winter Street in its windings go?And who are they, all unheard and unseen -

O, who are they, whose blessed feet

Pass over that highway smooth and sheen?

What pilgrims travel the Winter Street?

Are they not those whom here we miss

In the ways and the days that are vacant below?

As the dust of that Street their footfalls kiss

Does it not brighter and brighter grow?

Steps of the children there may stray

Where the broad day shines to dark earth sleeps,

And there at peace in the light they play,While some one below still wakes and weeps.

Miss Edith Matilda Thomas (1854-1925)


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A Vision for European Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Antarctic station Concordia, Dome C (20102020)

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executive summary 6

approach and scope 12 1a Context

151b

Brie historical overview15 Windows into geospace16 First steps o photonic astronomy in Antarctica16 Super seeing conditions on the Antarctic plateau17 Towards an observatory at Dome C

19 1c How ARENA worked

arena deliverables 24

site quality assessment 28 3a Available data29 Precipitable water vapour (PWV)29 Sky brightness at inrared wavelengths

30 Optical sky brightness, raction o clear nights,

and visual extinction

30 Temperature and wind profles

30 Seeinge0

30 Outer scale L0

30 Boundary layer and Cn2(h) profles

31 Coherence time t0 and isoplanatic angle q0

31 Additional note concerning day-time observation conditions

32 3b What is needed to nalize the site characterization at Dome C

astrophysics at dome c 34

36 4a Wide-eld optical and inrared astronomy 36 Working group activities

36 Science and context

37 Dome C potential

37 Science cases

39 Instrumental requirements

40 Roadmap and unding

42 4b Submillimetre-wave astronomy

42 Working group activities42 Submillimetre astronomy: science and context

43 Dome C potential and atmosphere transmission

44 Science cases or submillimetre/ar-inrared astronomy at Dome C

44 Telescope requirements


46 4c Optical and inrared intererometry

46 Working group activities

46 Science and context

47 Dome C potential

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Table of contents


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47 Instrumental requirements

49 Conclusion and roadmap

50 4d Long time-series photometric observations

50

Working group activity 50 Science and context

50 Potential o Dome C

51 Science cases

53 Instrumental projects or time-series observations


56 4e CMB experiments

56 Precision CMB measurements: the unique potential o Dome C

58 Proposed projects

60 Feasibility

62 4f Solar astrophysics

62 Working group goals, activities and organization

62 Solar astrophysics in the space and ground context 63 Dome C unique assets or solar observations

64 Solar science cases

65 Proposed acilities and inrastructure

66 Logistic ootprint on the Concordia station

66 Conclusions

logistics and polarconstraints 68 5a Astronomy at Dome C and logistics

70 5b Plan or the installation o a large instrument

public outreach 72 6a Introduction

73 6b ARENA leafet 74 6c ARENA public outreach

75 6d Recommendations or uture activities

funding and manpowerrequirements 76 7a Cost and unding

80 7b Personnel and training

synthesis of the roadmap

and final recommendations 82

annexes 86 Aa Contributors to the ARENA roadmap

91 Ab List o instruments at Dome Cpast, in operation, or being set up in 2009

92 Ac List o abbreviations

acknowledgements 95

references 95

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Tableofcontents


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ExecutiveSummary


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Astronomers have always sought the

best possible observing conditions.The inner Antarctic continent is the

wildest, coldest, and driest desert on earth,

oering an almost pristine nature withouthuman contamination, or even aunal orforal presence. It is thereore, in essence, anoutstandingly appealing area to explore or

the construction o major astronomical a-cilities o the uture. Astronomers have ordecades been attracted by this opportunity.

Several pioneering attempts have beenmade to set up increasingly sophisticated

instruments over the last 40 years encom-passing a wide range o techniques andscientic goals. The only major astronomi-cal acility so ar established is at the US

station Amundsen-Scott, right at the geo-graphic South Pole station, and named theMartin A. Pomerantz Observatory in tribute

to one o the most active astronomers inAntarctica over the last hal century.

France and Italy have recently joined theeort: they have built and, since 2005,operate year-round a multidisciplinary

station at Dome C called Concordia, oneo the highest domes on the AntarcticPlateau, located about 1,200km rom

the sea coast at a latitude o about -75and an elevation o 3,202m. Dome C isan extremely promising location or the

establishment o the rst European astro-nomical observatory in Antarctica, whicheventually could become a major item o

international research inrastructure.

To explore this opportunity in all its as-

pects, a network, ARENA, was created un-der the auspices o the European Com-

mission. ARENA has had as a goal theinvestigation o the scientic prospectso and the possibility o implementing anastronomical observatory at Concordia,and to document a suite o instrumental

projects that could benet greatly rom

the conditions on the Antarctic plateau.ARENA created the impetus necessary toorm international consortia in charge o

preparing detailed studies (Phase A and B)o at least a couple o the proposed pro-jects; consortia that could possibly under-take their construction beore the end o

the coming decade, 2010-2020.

Preliminary site assessments and atmos-

pheric modelling by several expert teams,primarily rom Australia, France, and Italy,have demonstrated that this region oers

exceptional conditions or astronomymainly thanks to the cold, dry, and calmatmosphere. The atmosphere above the

highest spots o the Antarctic continentoers the best conditions on earth toinvestigate astronomical objects at high

angular resolution in the near thermal IRand submillimetre-wave ranges. The highlatitude location allows very long conti-

nuous night-time photometric observa-tions, which are essential or the study operiodic variability o celestial objects. In

several well-identied domains (niches)

the Antarctic plateau may even competewith space missions, but at a much lower

cost, and with the invaluable bonus ousing the most advanced technologies.

The ARENA network has identied sixparticularly promising astrophysical areaswith well-dened research programmes.

Taking into account the constraints o lo-gistics and environment, the network hasbeen able to outline the top-level requi-

rements or the instrumentation able toaddress these programmes.

They are, i) wide-eld, extremely sensitiveimaging and spectro-imaging in the nearand thermal inrared (2.3-4m) with a2.5m-class telescope (the PLT project),

ii) extremely sensitive submillimetre-waveimager with a collecting area equivalent

Executive Summary

This document, prepared

with the contributions of

more than 100 scientists

and engineers from Europe

and Australia involved

in Antarctic astronomy,

presents a roadmap

for the development

of European astronomy

and astrophysics in

the Antarctic continent,

and more specically,

at the Concordia station

(Dome C) in the coming

decade (20102020).

It is based on the work

carried out duringthe period 20062009

within the framework

of the ARENA network.


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a catalogue o source calibrators in the

ar-southern sky, and attempt severalscience observations o the Sun and ostar ormation.

Finally, this roadmap provides a visionor an Antarctic Submillimetre Telescope

(AST) project. This could be a large teles-cope acility consisting o a 25m diameterclass, single-dish at Dome C, or equivalent

collective area achieved with a networko medium-size radio telescope antennas,operating at submillimetre wavelengths

and oering unique science possibilities. Itsperomance at 200, 350 and 450m wouldbe superior to an equivalent telescope on

any o the Andean sites in Chile and Argen-tina. Furthermore, a single-dish telescopecould be used as a Very Long Baseline

Intererometry station with the ALMA andother antennas in South America.

OpticalandinfraredinterferometryStudying the warm inner parts o debris

disks, the extrasolar counterparts o thezodiacal dust cloud, is o prime impor-tance to characterize the global architec-

ture o planetary systems. Furthermore,the presence o large quantities o warmdust around nearby main sequence stars

represents a possible obstacle or uturespace missions dedicated to the direct de-tection and characterization o Earth-like

planets. The requency o the occurrenceo bright exozodiacal disks around solar-type stars is currently mostly unknown. As

o today, exozodiacal disks have been di-rectly resolved around a small number omain sequence stars, at a sensitivity levelo about 1,000 times our Solar System zo-

diacal dust cloud. In this context, the An-tarctic plateau could provide the optimalground-based conditions or an inrared

nulling intererometer dedicated to thedirect detection o warm dust cloudsaround nearby main sequence stars.

Joint eorts between several Europeaninstitutes within the ARENA consortium

led to the denition o the ALADDINconcept. In order to achieve a signi-cantly improved sensitivity with respect

to existing instruments, the architectureo the system is specically ocussedand optimised or the purpose: ALADDIN

implements the nulling intererometrytechnique at the ocal plane o a twotelescope intererometer mounted on

a rotating beam structure. Thanks to theAntarctic environment, such a nulling in-tererometer coupled to a pair o 1m-class

telescopes operated at thermal inraredwavelengths would perorm signicantlybetter than a similar instrument working

on 8m-class telescopes in a temperatesite (e.g., at ESO Paranal).

beyond 2.3m where observations arenormally hampered by the strong thermal

background emission o the sky rom theground. Thanks to the exceptional seeingconditions above the turbulent layer, Dome

C is an ideal site to make large-scale, highangular resolution, extremely deep ima-ging surveys in this wavelength regime.

The PLT (Polar Large Telescope) projectis the result o extensive discussionsbetween Europeans and Australians

to propose a realistic, albeit ambitious,project or such a telescope with a2.5m aperture. A limited number o pro-

grammes will be perormed aimed atsurveying very distant galaxies, dustySNIas, and extreme stellar populations

in the local group, and at characterizing

exoplanets by transit and microlensingmilli-magnitude photometry. The project

will be based on a European-Australiancollaboration. A preliminary evaluationo the cost points toward a 11 M teles-

cope and 5 M ocal instrument with aPhase B study in 2010-2013 potentiallyunded by the FP7 and a rst light beore

the end o the decade (hopeully 2018).

Submillimetre-waveastronomyPerorming ground-based astronomicalobservations in the submillimetre part othe electromagnetic spectrum requires,

at a minimum, very dry conditions. TheAntarctic plateau, a unique desert onEarth, is an obvious candidate site.

The atmospheric transmission in the sub-millimetre windows centred at e.g., 200,

350, 450, and 850m has been estimatedby the team o CEA-IRFU/Saclay usingmeasurements with a tipper instrument

and the MOLIERE radiative transer mo-delling code. The 200m window opensup to better than 20% transmission or

25% o the time. Observations at 350 and

450m would be possible all year. Thesevalues o transmission indicate that obser-

ving conditions at Dome C are superior tothe known sites in Chile or Argentina. Theestimated transmission values were usedas lters to select science cases. The Cos-

mic history o star ormation, black holesand galaxies, Origins o stellar masses,Galactic engines, and Galaxy clusters

in the ar Universe and dark energywere selected as the our main topics oscience cases or a submillimetre-wave

telescope acility in Antarctica.

One o the unctions o the thermal inra-

red telescope (the Italian IRAIT 80cm)can be as a pathnding experiment orsubmillimetre astronomy. It will perorm

atmospheric and sky-noise measure-ments with a bolometer array, prepare

to a 25m dish (project AST), iii) near IRintererometry or the detection o exo-

planets and exozodiacal light (the ALAD-DIN project), iv) a set o smaller dedica-ted instruments (some o them already

in the construction on-site) or planetarytransits, stellar variability, asteroseismo-logy, and inrared imaging photometry, v)

cosmic microwave background experi-ments (the QUBIC project) and, vi) highangular resolution solar measurements

(the AFSIIC project).

A series o recommendations have been

drawn rom the discussions held duringthe several workshops and conerencesthat took place during the last our years.

Siteassessment

A large amount o data have been collec-ted with the aim o quantiying the day

and night-time astronomical observingconditions at Dome C. The available datashow that the precipitable water vapour

is usually below 0.7mm and drops to0.3mm or 50% o the time, thus oeringexcellent conditions or submillimetre

observations. The extreme cold o theatmosphere means that its thermal emis-sion is greatly reduced. This, in turn, leads

to signicant savings in the time requiredto carry out large observing programmesat wavelengths longer than 2m.

The absence o strong turbulence in theupper atmosphere results in low scintilla-tion and creates avourable conditions

or photometric programmes. The me-dian ree-atmosphere seeing in the visibleis 0.36, but achieving this imaging accu-

racy in the optical is limited by the pre-sence o a very strongly turbulent boun-dary layer which extends up to median

altitudes o some 40m in winter and up to400m in summer. The small outer scale oturbulence measured at Dome C, combi-

ned with a long coherence time and withthe large isoplanatic angle is benecialor high angular resolution techniques

at this site. Detailed measurements o thevertical and temporal variation o theatmospheric parameters are now needed,

in order to draw robust conclusions aboutshort- and long-term stabilities and trends,and to constrain the specications o ins-

truments to be deployed at Dome C.

Near-infraredhighangularresolutionwide-eldimagingVarious countries have or some timeproposed the construction o a largeoptical/inrared telescope in Antarctica.The conditions on the Antarctic plateau

particularly avour an exploitation o thespectral windows not easily accessiblerom the ground, i.e., in the thermal IREx

ecutiveSummary


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ExecutiveSummary

astronomical sites on the Earth, operated

all year round. Concordia is, in principle,ready to implement, host, and operate anew generation o mesoscale astrono-

mical instruments capable o major ad-vances in several cutting-edge astrophy-sical areas during the next decades. The

momentum created by ARENA shoulddenitely be sustained through new vi-gorous actions, such as a better coordi-

nation o the site testing operations anddata access, the establishment o consor-tia to submit excellent proposals to the

relevant unding calls, and above all thePhase B study o mesoscale projects. Thisshould be ollowed with rm decisions

by the national agencies.

An accompanying public outreach pro-

gramme is essential and should be setup. A culture o cooperation betweenthe management o the dierent stations

currently in operation is also highly desi-rable. Ultimately, we propose the creationo a European Centre for Astrophysics inAntarctica on the model o existing mul-tinational organizations. .

The ARENA CMC,

December 2009

- an instrument dedicated to high angu-lar resolution astrophysical studies o theSun (such asAFSIIC).

It is unlikely that all these actions will

be unded in the next decade, but, aterdeliberation in the CMC, ARENA rerainsrom ranking these projects, leaving thesestrategic decisions to the national, euro-

pean, and international agencies that areexpressed, or instance, in the body o theASTRONET recommendations.

However, we believe that the only projectin the mid-size (cost) range that can eec-

tively be carried out in the next decadeis PLT. This project has the potential or awide support rom the community and

will be made possible only i a strong and

sustainable international collaboration isset up around it.

We point out that several studies that willbe carried out or this project, such as the

implementation o a Ground Layer Adap-tative Optics (GLAO) device specic topolar conditions, the construction o a

sti tower and the mitigation o rosting,will also be useul or other projects, inparticular uture optical/IR intererome-

tric and solar projects.

Fostering European and internationalcollaborations and aggregating a criticalmass o resources have been constantlyemphasised during the ARENA meetings.Although ARENA has helped in initiating

some successul common work, the pre-sent situation is ar rom being satisac-tory. In particular there is clearly a decit

o collaborative programmes betweeninstitutes belonging to the two countrieso Concordia. Additionally, there is little

doubt that an emphasis on small projectsdoes not encourage wide, long-term col-laborations. The internationalisation o

Concordia or astrophysics to the status oa European Research Inrastructure is es-sential, but it is strongly dependent on the

decision to build at least one signicantambitious project, now, and to propose anambitious vision beyond. Our conclusion

is that, without vigorous support rom thenational and international agencies andagreements between them, the astronomi-

cal potential o the station will not deve-lop even though it is located in the bestastronomical site on Earth.This would

constitute a major paradox precisely atthe time when China is creating an An-tarctic Astronomical Centre at Dome A.

In conclusion, we consider that theConcordia station at Dome C represents

a real opportunity or Europe (and col-laborators) to develop one o the best

We express our interest in the explora-tion o as yet undocumented sites (suchas the Antarctic Ridges A and B).

We have identied a wide range o scien-ce cases, as detailed above, that wouldstrongly benet rom the unique Antarctic

conditions. A suite o appropriately desi-gned instruments is identied; these canbe classied into three main categories:

small instruments, some o which arecurrently in the construction phase (IRAIT,

COCHISE, BRAIN/QUBIC, TAVERN, AS-TEP) or ready to be built (SIAMOIS, ICE-T).They all t within the present logistics ca-

pabilities. Their cost is in the range o aew million euros. For obvious reasons omanpower capacity on site, and to leaveroom or more ambitious projects, their

number should not increase withoutlimit in the uture. An international peer-reviewing process to select uture pro-

jects based on their scientic excellenceshould be established,

mid-size facilities (mesoscale projects,cost range o a ew tens o millionseuros, (such as PLT or a solar telescope/

intererometer) that will need aordableupgrades o the logistics (power supply,transport, e-communication). They will

require, however, a very large deploymento personnel to the site over several sum-mer seasons or the construction,

large to extremely large projects that,according to the conclusions o the dedi-cated ARENA activity NA4 would require

a suciently large increase in the resour-ces available or logistics that one couldnot expect to be deployed in the coming

decade (such as ALADDIN, AST, AFSIICand, a ortiori, KEOPS - the km-scale opti-cal/inrared intererometer array).

For the coming decade and in conside-ration o the refections o the dierent

working groups the ollowing recommen-

dations o ARENA are made:

to continue the site assessment

to establish a major unding plan inorder to run the currently on-going teles-

copes or instruments (COCHISE, IRAIT, ASTEP, BRAIN) and obtain as soon aspossible high-quality science rom them

to make plans or the rapid implementationo SIAMOIS and ICE-T

to start immediately, in 2010, a phase Bstudy orPLT on the basis o the phase Astudies made by the Australians or PILOT,or rst light beore the end o the decade.

to commence phase A studies or: - a large submillimetre-wave telescopeacility (AST) to exploit the extraordinarypotential o the site in the THz regime,

- a pathnder or intererometry in theoptical/NIR range (such asALADDIN),


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Approach

and

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0

180

90 E90 W

60

S

RONNE

ICE SHELF

ROSS

ICE SHELF

Signy (UK)

Molodezhnaya(Russia)

Soyuz (Russia)

Druzhnaya 4 (Russia)

Law - Racovita (Australia/Romania)

Proposed station (India)

Troll

(Norway)

Syowa (Japan)

Mirny(Russia)

Davis(Australia)

Casey(Australia)

Vostok (Russia)

Mawson(Australia)

Halley (UK)

Rothera (UK)

Orcadas (Argentina)

McMurdo (USA)

SANAE IV (South Africa)Neumayer (Germany)

Brown (Argentina)Gabriel Gonzlez Videla (Chile)Yelcho (Chile)Vernadsky (Ukraine)

Concordia(France/Italy)

Scott Base(NZ)

Progress 2 (Russia)Zhongshan (China)

Bird Island

Belgrano II(Argentina)

Amundsen-Scott (USA)

Macquarie Island

Dumont d'Urville(France)

San Martn (Argentina)

Maitri (India), Novolazarevskaya (Russia)

Kunlun (China)

Leningradskaya(Russia)

Russkaya(Russia)

Gondwana (Germany)

Mario Zucchelli (Italy)

Mizuho(Japan)

Dome Fuji (Japan)

Asuka (Japan)

PrincessElisabeth(Belgium)

Tor(Norway)

Kohnen(Germany)

Aboa (Finland)Wasa (Sweden)

Sobral (Argentina)

Arturo Parodi (Chile)

Dakshin Gangotri (India)

Luis Carvajal(Chile)

Melchior(Argentina)

Palmer(USA)

See inset

1412

13, 241,15 2

3,4,165,6,7,8,9,10,11,17,18,26

19 20,21

22,23

Petrel(Argentina)

25

Primavera(Argentina)

Matienzo(Argentina)

Legend

Year-round station

Seasonal station

Closed station

Proposed station

Seasonal stations15 Macchu Picchu (Peru)16 Dallman (Germany)17 Julio Ripamonti (Chile)18 Maldonado (Ecuador)19 Guillermo Mann (Chile)20 Juan Carlos I (Spain)21 Ohridiski (Bulgaria)22 Decepcon (Argentina)23 Gabriel de Castilla (Spain)24 T/N Ruperto Elichiribehety (Uruguay)25 Gregor Mendel (Czech Republic)

Closed station26 Luis Risopatron (Chile)

Year-round stations1 Comandante Ferraz (Brazil)2 Arctowski (Poland)3 Jubany (Argentina)4 King Sejong (Korea)5 Artigas (Uruguay)6 Bellingshausen (Russia)7 Eduardo Frei (Chile)8 Julio Escudero (Chile)9 Estacin martima Antrtica (Chile)10 Great Wall (China)11 Arturo Prat (Chile)12 Bernado O'Higgins (Chile)13 Esperanza (Argentina)14 Marambio (Argentina)

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.A Vision for European Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Antarctic station Concordia, Dome C (20102020)

11a Context

Approach and Scope

The Antarctic Plateau

offers exceptional

atmospheric and

environmental conditions

for astronomical

observations over a wide

range of wavelengths.

The ARENA network

has investigated

the various scientic,

technical and practical

issues relevant to the

creation of a world class

international observatory

in Antarctica.

Astronomers have consistently sou-

ght geographical locations that

provide the best conditions or

their observations: the largest raction o

time that the sky is clear, access to the

broadest spectral range, the highest trans-

parency, the best seeing and the lowest

sky brightness, minimal contamination

by dust, light, or aerosols. A powerul, but

expensive and limited solution is to set up

instruments above the lowest layers o the

Earth atmosphere using balloons, airpla-

nes, rockets or satellites.

However, space platorms have never

replaced ground based astronomy. It is

currently, and most likely will remain so

or a long time to come, necessary to use

ground-based acilities to achieve extre-

mely large collecting areas and in parti-

cular to be able to use state-o-the-art ins-

trumentation that can be upgraded on a

regular basis. Intererometry, or instance,

is unlikely to be perormed rom space

in the next decade. The search or the

best ground based site remains topical,

although the Chilean Andes and Hawaiiare currently viewed as the best acilities

currently in use. There might be, however,

even more attractive locations - or ins-

tance on the Antarctic continent.

The scope o the present document is to pro-

pose a decadal plan or the development

o Antarctica as a platorm or a new type

o astronomy. It is the result o a common

reection and thorough investigations in

dierent astrophysical areas o about one

hundred experts: researchers and engi-

neers in astrophysics, atmospheric physics,

instrumentation and polar logistics.

The inner Antarctica is indeed the wildest,

coldest and driest desert on Earth. It oers

an almost virgin nature without human, au-

nal or oral contamination, and negligible

seismic or volcanic activity. The nearest

signifcant source o industrial pollu-

tion is more than 5,000km away and

the pattern o atmospheric circulation

is such that very little pollution is intro-

duced into the atmosphere above the

Antarctic plateau. It is thereore, in es-

sence, an outstandingly appealing area

to explore or the establishment o ma-

jor astronomical acilities in the uture.

Astronomers have been attracted since

decades by this opportunity and have

made several pioneering attempts to

set up increasingly sophisticated instru-ments during the last 40 years. Only one

signifcant spot has been implemented

at the US station Amundsen-Scott, right

at the South Pole, so ar, the Martin A. Po-

merantz Observatory named in tribute

to one o the most active astronomers

in Antarctica since 1959. The recent ope-

ning all year long o the French-Italian

Concordia station at Dome C is a major

opportunity or Europe to participate in

this challenging adventure.

Concordia plan:exploded view

o the Concordia

station

Stations

in Antarctica


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Approach

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nevertheless, remain limited by their re-

latively low inrared/submillimetre trans-

parency, by their inrared thermal sky

background emission and by some unde-sirable molecular and radical emission

lines (such as OH in the near inrared).

Improving the observing conditions and,

thus, the resulting science value requires

constructions o observatories at the hi-

ghest, coldest, driest and most stable sites.

The Antarctic plateau is high (3,000 to

4,000m), cold (-30 to -80C), and the co-

lumn density o atmospheric water va-

pour is extremely low (5 to 10 times less

than the best currently exploited IR site at

Mauna Kea). Under these conditions, new

spectral windows open, and the usual

ones become signifcantly broader or

cleaner (ree o undesirable absorption

lines or molecular bands) allowing much

more stable photometric conditions or

the access to otherwise unobservable

spectral lines or bands o major astrophy-

Although a number o 2-4m telescopes

are in operation across the world, many o

them are not suitable or surveyobserva-

tions, or do not operate rom outstandingsites, or would require upgrading o their

control system, ocal equipment or data

pipeline that their operators cannot aord.

Several 2-4m class telescopes, such as the

CFHT have been successully moved into

the survey dedicated mode, providing

immense databases as legacies.

Excellent site location is essential to the

success o any telescope, in particular

the spectral range in which it can be use-

ully operated strongly depends on the

atmospheric transparency, which in turn

is basically governed by its altitude above

sea level and the absence o sky pollution

o any origin, human or natural, above it.

The best currently operated tropical sites

in Hawaii (Mauna Kea) and the Chilean

Andes (Cerro Paranal, Cerro Chajnantor)

have long proven their excellence but,

Ground based astronomy will clearly be

dominated in the next decade by the

construction o giant telescopes such

as the European-ELT and the AmericanTMT/or the optical/inrared range, and

by ALMA or the millimetre/submillimetre

wave range. These gigantic instruments

will oer exceptional sensitivity and very

high angular resolution allowing one to

study the most distant galaxies (frst light

in the Universe), identiy and characterize

exo-Earths and possibly identiy traces o

lie thereon. From space, the 6m James

Webb Space Telescope will probe the

Universe at an unprecedented level o

sensitivity rom the visible to the mid-in-

rared. All these instruments will be ully

operational during the next decade and

will undoubtedly yield major breakthrou-

ghs in the understanding o the evolution

o the Universe since its very beginning to

the possible emergence o lie.

Besides these extremely large and costly ins-

truments, smaller telescopes will continue

to be essential tools or astronomers to in-

vestigate astrophysical phenomena that do

not require extreme sensitivities or angular

resolution.Among such essential astrophy-

sical investigations are the multispectral

mapping o large sky areas (surveys),hightime resolution monitoring o variable ob-

jects,high angular resolution o the Sun and

solar corona and CMB polarization measu-

rements.These investigations do not neces-

sarily require very large collecting areas,

but rather,long observing time or extremely

stable atmospheric conditions. Telescopes

in the range spanning rom 1 to a ew me-

ters diameter, provided they are suitably

located,equipped with state-o-the art ocal

instruments and linked to powerul pipeline

and archiving centres will still continue to

provide essential data at relatively modest

cost. Indeed, telescopes dedicated to sur-

veys o the sky,such as the 2.5m Sloan teles-

cope used or the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

(SDSS),or the Canada-France-Hawaii Teles-

cope (CFHT), routinely achieve very high

publication and citation rates.

Winterover sta 2008 Winterover sta 2009

The

Concordiastro

towers (2006)


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15


sical interest just at the edges o the usual

atmospheric windows. Moreover, Antarc-

tica has a unique political status on our

planet:it is a continent exclusively dedi-

cated to scientifc research under the

protection o international treaties (the

Antarctic Treaty and the Madrid proto-

col) preserving the entire continent rom

all sorts o uture undesirable human pol-

lution. It is thereore, in essence, a model

or international collaborations.

In addition, because o its high latitude

range, the long duration o dark time

allows long duty cycle observations

particularly suited to a continuous pho-

tometric sampling o variable pheno-

mena such as stellar pulsations (astero-

seismology), or periodic events such as

planetary transits.

Finally, the structure o the atmospheric

turbulent layer is such that the ree at-

mosphere begins relatively close to the

ground, rom a ew to a ew tens meters

altitude. This particular behaviour o the

boundary layer and o the key parame-

ters that govern high angular resolution

imaging in the optical and near inrared

brings an additional incomparable advan-

tage o Antarctica over conventional sites.

Creating an astronomical observatory

in Antarctica has been dreamt o or de-

cades in several countries and the USA

have eectively established a major ob-

servatory at the geographical South Pole

making use year-round o the Amund-

sen-Scott station. The M. A. Pomerantz

Observatory is now mainly dedicated

to millimetre wave astronomy - and in

particular to CMB measurements. It is

in continuous development and has re-

cently received a new large millimetre

wave instrument consisting o a 10m

diameter dish (South Pole Telescope).

However, this station is not particularly

suited to shorter wavelength astronomy

because o the relatively small rac-

tion o clear sky, and a relatively thick

boundary layer resulting in poor seeing

conditions. On the other hand, sites

located on Domes that dominate the

plateau and away rom which ow the

katabatic winds are much more appea-

ling or optical, inrared and submilli-

metre observations.

It has been the purpose o the ARENA

network to conduct studies and to pro-

duce documents covering all aspects

relevant to the creation o this Observa-

tory o the Future at the station Concor-

dia in coordination with other roadmap

exercises such as ASTRONET. .

1b Brief historical

overview

Nearly a century ago, in 1911, the

Norwegian Roald Amundsen rea-

ched the South Pole. As early as

1912, the American polar explorer Robert

E. Peary had the intuition that the privi-

leged geographical position o the South

Pole could be suitable or astronomical

observations. Today many results cove-

ring a wide feld o interests rom starormation through solar physics to the

analysis o the CMB have been obtained

rom Antarctica. Ambitious projects to

create an observatory are under conside-

ration at Dome C thanks to the successes

obtained with earlier polar astronomical

experiments developed during the pre-

vious hal century.

Wdws t gsacIn 1955, Antarctic astronomy started

with non conventional telescopes when

the Australians installed their cosmic

ray observatory at the Mawson coastal

station. The collisions between cosmic

rays and atmospheric molecules create

particle showers, especially muons and

neutrons. This cosmic radiation also gi-

ves birth to many phenomena located

in the upper atmosphere: auroras, ioni-

zation o the atmosphere, etc. Thus the

polar regions constitute a unique place

to observe the geomagnetic properties

and the interactions between the Earth

and the interplanetary medium. In the

1950s these geophysical issues pushed

the ICSU (International Council oScientifc Unions) to launch an inter-

national cooperation programme, the

International Geophysical Year (IGY).

IGY is a major milestone in the history o

polar exploration and particularly in An-

tarctic research. Building up on the model

o the previous polar years (in 1882-1883

and 1932-1933), the IGY lasted rom July

1957 to December 1958. The IGY was not

restricted to the polar regions and, by the

end o 1958, 61 countries were fnally in-

volved in this worldwide collaboration.

IGY stimulated unprecedented develop-

ments o polar logistics and the construc-

tion o about fty bases inside the conti-

nent or along the Antarctic coast. As a

consequence o IGY the Antarctic Treatywas written, then ratifed by 12 countries

in 1961. With this treaty, reedom o scienti-

fc investigation in Antarctica and coopera-

tion toward that end, as applied during the

International Geophysical Year, shall conti-

nue, subject to the provisions o the present

Treaty and Antarctica shall be used or

peaceul purposes only. There shall be pro-

hibited, inter alia, any measure o a military

nature, such as the establishment o mili-tary bases and ortifcations, the carrying

out o military manoeuvres, as well as the

testing o any type o weapon. Moreover,

in order to pursue the eective scientifc

coordination o IGY, the Scientifc Com-

mittee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) iscreated in 1958.

This international cooperation was a real

springboard or the cosmic ray measure-ments rom Antarctica. In 1959, just ater

the IGY, the recently opened Ofce o Polar

Programmes o the US National Science

Foundation (NSF) puts Martin Pomerantz

in charge o installing one o these detec-

tors at the US McMurdo coastal base. In

1964, he installed neutron detectors at the

South Pole too. These detectors, both in

the Arctic and Antarctic allowed or the

frst time simultaneous measurements

rom the two hemispheres o solar cosmic

rays and a very precise characterization

o the heliosphere. Pomerantzs team also

initiated balloon launches with instru-

ments on board to detect X-rays above An-

tarctica rom McMurdo. Thus, in 1969 and

1970, they discovered serendipitously the

unique possibilities o long lietime bal-

loon-borne ights above Antarctica.

In 1959, Americans began a cosmic ray programme

research in Antarctica. They installed a neutron

detector developed during the IGY at the McMurdo

coastal station inside the Cosray building standing

here in the middle o the picture.


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The accurate measurement o the cos-

mological background constitutes one o

the themes o predilection o the South

Pole observatory.

On their side, Italians also recognised

the potential o Antarctica at their Terra

Nova (now Mario Zucchelli) station by

installing there since 1986 the submilli-

metre-wave antenna OASI (Osservatorio

Antartico Submillimetrico E Inrarosso). This

2.60m-antenna was the frst telescope to

perorm measurements during Antarctic

winter. Meanwhile continuous observa-

tions were achieved by SPOT (the SouthPolar Optical Telescope), a small teles-

cope o 8cm in the visible, which obtai-

ned, in 1986, 16 uninterrupted hours o

observations o variable stars such as g2

Velorum. This was the frst time that unin-

terrupted observations were made over

such a long period rom the ground.

S sg cdts t Atactc ataIn the 1980s, the evaluation o the as-

tronomical potential in Antarctica was

based on meteorological data collected

at the South Pole (called Amundsen-Scott

base since 1975), at Vostok (located at an

altitude o 3,500m) and at Dome C. These

data allowed the community to get a rea-

listic idea o the atmospheric conditions

on the high plateau.

Following these historical results,

networks such as IRIS (International

Research o the Interior o the Sun) and

GONG (Global Oscillations Network

Group) were created and an instrument

dedicated to helioseismology was on

board o the solar space observatory

SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Obser-

vatory). The programme ended in 1994.

There is no doubt that the success o so-

lar observations deeply changed the per-

ception o the astronomical community,

mostly sceptical, about the extraordinary

potential o Antarctic observations.

Other felds o astronomy could also

beneft rom the Antarctic conditions.

The precipitable water vapour content

(PWV), the main source o atmospheric

opacity in the inrared and the millime-tre-wave range, is extremely low there.

This was confrmed by the frst prelimi-

nary measurements o the PWV at the

South Pole in 1975. Pomerantz called

upon a reputable French team in the

submillimetre-wave domain, the team o

Jean-Loup Puget rom Orsay. Their instru-

ment, EMILIE ( Emission Millimtrique),

measured the galactic centre emission

in the submillimetre-wave range during

the 1984-1985 summer. The experiment

was a success. At the South Pole, measure-

ments were ound to reach instrumental

limits, whereas at Mauna Kea in Hawaii,

they were limited by the atmospheric

uctuations. The superiority o the South

Pole over Mauna Kea in this feld was thus

demonstrated. It is thus a double success

or astronomy at the South Pole: it is an ex-

cellent millimetre-wave site and the logis-

tics allows the supply o the liquid helium

necessary to cool down the detectors.

A French-American collaboration took place in de-

cember 1984 at South Pole with the EMILIE expe-

riment. This instrument demonstrated the potential

o Antarctica high plateau or submillimetre-wave

astronomy. (From upper right to upper let: J.L. Pu-

get, R. Gispert, J.M. Lamarre, C. Maurel - behind the

ladder -, J.C. Renault).

This potential or millimetre-wave astro-

nomy was immediately understood by

the experts in CMB who were investiga-

ting the tiny temperature uctuations in

the cosmological background. In summer

1986-1987, a team rom ATT Bell Labs lead

by Anthony Stark, Mark Dragovan and Ro-

bert Pernic set up an instrument to carry

out preliminary measurements.

Photonic astronomy in Antarctica started in Ja-

nuary 1980 with solar observations. A French Ame-

rican collaboration observed the Sun continuously

during 6 days at South Pole. This was the beginning

o helioseismology. (From let to right: G. Grec, L..

Page, M. Pomerantz, E. Fossat).

During the Antarctic summer, atmosphe-ric thermal streams above the continent

create a vortex that the balloon can

ollow throughout several days while

remaining at the same latitude. Every

summer since 1988, two ights have been

launched rom McMurdo. The amous

BOOMERanG (Balloon Observations o

Millimetric Extragalactic Radiations and

Geomagnetics) experiment is one o

them. In 1998, ater a 10-days ight, this

experiment carried out unique cosmolo-

gical measurements, which showed that

our universe is at (see Chapter 4e).

Fst sts f tc astmy AtactcaWorking in collaboration with a solar phy-

sicist, the Swedish astronomer Arne Wyl-

ler, Pomerantz noted that the South Pole

would be also a unique place to carry out

solar observations: a constant source ele-

vation, a clear sky and cold temperatures.

Observations made in 1968-1969 with a 5

inch telescope convinced Wyller to write a

report to the committee or polar research

o the US Academy o Sciences in 1970, ad-

vocating the unique potential o the SouthPole or astronomy. This is the frst time that

the potential or astronomy in Antarctica

was ofcially presented and published.

Eight years later, Pomerantz started a col-

laboration with two young French solar

astronomers who proposed to carry out

uninterrupted observations o the Sun over

periods longer than 24 hours, Eric Fossat

and Grard Grec, rom Nice. Their instru-

ment was installed in summer 1978-1979

with American unding. They achieved

their objective: six uninterrupted ull days

o observations o the Sun. These measure-

ments enabled them to distinguish more

than 80 resonance modes o the Sun. These

observations marked the birth o a new

discipline, helioseismology, and the begin-

ning o photonic astronomy in Antarctica.

Every year since 1988, astronomers take advan-

tage o the McMurdo coastal station to launch

long ight balloons. Using the summer polar vor-

tex, these balloons can y during 10 days or more

above Antarctica. Here, the amous BOOMERanG

experiment launched in 1998 and which gave un-

damental results in cosmology.


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17


The international astronomical commu-

nity recognized the astronomical potenti-

al o the Antarctic plateau during the 21st

IAU Assembly in Buenos Aires in 1991.

A session dedicated to Antarctic astrono-

my was organized and the IAU recognizes

the act that the extremely dry, cold and

tenuous atmosphere above the Antarctic

plateau provides the best observing condi-

tions on Earth in the inrared wavelength,

submillimetre and millimetre wavelength

rangeand in particular resolves to create

a working group to encourage internatio-

nal cooperation in site testing []. Se-

veral meetings took place in France and

in Australia between the site testing spe-

cialists o the University o Nice and the

University o New South Wales. A collabo-

ration was established in 1993 between Al

Harper (CARA), Peter Gillingham (UNSW)

and Jean Vernin (University o Nice).

Temperature measurements were carriedout in 1994 at the South Pole with micro-

thermal sensors installed on a 30m mast,

then in 1995 with 15 balloons instrumen-

ted with microthermal probes.

These frst measurements confrmed Gil-

lingham predictions: the seeing in the

visible is quite poor, but turbulence is

essentially concentrated in a thin layer

localized in the frst 200m above the

ground. On top o the plateau, where the

winds are lower and temperatures col-

der, this turbulence layer may be even

thinner. It is what is actually observed at

Dome C (nearly 30m).

Twads a bsvaty at Dm CThe construction o the French-Italian

Concordia station is mentioned or the

frst time at the conerence, Polar Re-

search: a strategy or the year 2000 held

in the FrenchAcadmie des Sciences in

Paris in 1992. The selected site sets at

Dome C, located about 40km away rom

the site where the glaciologist Claude

Lorius and his team have extracted an

ice core sample in 1978. Paleoclimato-

logy is one o the main scientifc drivers

or the establishment o this 3rd perma-

nent base on the inland, ater Amund-

sen-Scott and Vostok.

This became in 2004 with the record ex-

traction o a 3km long ice core giving in-

ormation on climatic variations during

the last 800,000 years (EPICA).

Ater the solar and millimetric observations

at the South Pole, and the Italian initiative

at Terra Nova, Australians showed their in-

terest in the potential o an astronomical

site located so close to their country. During

the second hal o the eighties, Peter Gil-

lingham suggested that the extremely low

temperatures and the atmosphere stability

could lead to the unique potential or high

angular resolution observations on the high

plateau; he spoke about super seeing.

Following an initiative o Pomerantz, more

than 100 astronomers interested in the as-

tronomical potential o the high Antarctic

plateau were invited to a conerence at

the Bartol Institute in June 1989, Astro-

physics in Antarctica. This meeting leads

to a real American scientifc policy which

durably inuenced the astrophysicalconquest o the highest spots o the pla-

teau. During this meeting, the idea to crea-

te a Centre or Astrophysical Research in

Antarctica (CARA) is put orward. This

centre was ofcially ounded in 1991, it

is headquarted at the Yerkes Observatory

(University o Chicago) and gathers seve-

ral American universities. With an optimi-

zed logistic organisation or astrophysics,

the goal o CARA is to achieve our main

projects: SPIREX (South Pole Inrared Ex-

plorer), a 60cm telescope specially deve-

loped to probe the deep sky between 2

and 3m and to assess the inrared poten-

tial o the site; AST/RO (Antarctic Submil-

limetre Telescopes and Remote Observa-

tory), a 1.70m submillimetre-wave antenna

to probe the carbon line around 600m in

our Galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds;

COBRA (Cosmic Background Radiation

Anisotropy), a 0.75m telescope to detect

the temperature uctuations o the CMB

up to angular scales o 20; and fnally ATP

(Advanced Telescope Project), a collabo-

ration between American and oreign ins-

titutions to evaluate the site quality or as-

tronomy and to prepare a larger telescopein the inrared and in the submillimetre-

wave or the end o the 1990s.

This conerence also gave rise to a propo-

sal o John Lynch, the NSF program ma-

nager or Aeronomy and Astrophysics, or

the construction o an international sta-

tion on top o the high plateau. This station

would be a pathfnder or a lunar station,

then under discussion in the space agen-

cies. More precisely, this station would

have a strong astrophysical colour and

would be located at 4,000m above the

sea level. At the end o the 1980s, the An-

tarctic domes are estimated to be the best

ground sites or inrared, submillimetre

and millimetre-wave astronomy as well

as Earth-Sun interactions study, due to the

proximity o the magnetic pole.

The Amundsen-Scott station has developed a large area entirely dedicated to astronomical observations (essentially cosmologi-

cal background observations and neutrino detection) ree rom electromagnetic perturbations: the dark sector. (In the upper

let: SPT and BICEP; in the upper centre: the M. Pomerantz Observatory; in the middle: the IceCube laboratory; the red drills

are the summer camp or icecubers).

One o the major results o the inrared telescope

SPIREX set at the South Pole is a survey o the

NGC 6334 nebula in the near inrared range rom

2.42 to 4.8m taken in 1998. This wide-feld survey

(30) acknowledged inrared potential o Antarc-

tica to study such star ormation regions with high

angular resolution.


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As soon as 1995, Jean Vernins team laun-

ched balloons rom Dome C to carry out

the same type o measurements as those

rom the South Pole to characterize at-

mospheric turbulence in the visible. In

1995-1996, two Italians, Luca Valenziano

( INAF, Bologna) and Giorgio DallOglio

(Universit La Sapienza), using their expe-

rience with OASI at Terra Nova, evaluated

the submillimetre-wave characteristics

o Dome C by measuring the atmosphe-

ric precipitable water vapour content.

From 1996 to 2000, the construction o

Concordia was stopped because o logis-

tics problems. In 2000, the Concordiastro

programme lead by Eric Fossat (Labora-toire Universitaire dAstrophysique de Nice,

LUAN) consists in a systematic charac-

terization o Dome C. Many instruments

dedicated to this purpose are installed

during summer missions rom December

to February each year. But as long as the

construction o the station was not com-

pleted, these measurements could not be

done during the polar night.

This is why in 2003 the Australian group lead

by John Storey set at Concordia an auto-

matic station to characterize the quality o

the sky during the whole year: AASTINO

(Automated Astrophysical Site Testing In-

ternational Observatory). It is an improved

version o AASTO (Automated Astrophysi-

cal Observatory or Antarctica) installed at

the South Pole rom 1997 to 2003.

OASI telescope is a 2.60m antenna in the submilli-

metre-wave range. It has been set in 1987 at Mario

Zucchelli station and was the frst Antarctic teles-

cope to operate during winter. This antenna is still

operational but the PNRA priority is currently the

COCHISE antenna set at Dome C.

In 1995, Giorgio DallOglio (on the let in red)

and Jean Vernin (the one who took the picture)

were the two frst astronomers to go to Dome C.

It was the beginning o the site testing campaigns.

Dome Fuji (3,810m above the sea level) is conside-

red as one o the best sites or astronomy on the high

plateau. Japan plans to begin site testing campaigns

or astronomy in 2010.

In February 2009, Chinese inaugurated the frst

building o the Kunlun station (the red and yel-

low one in the background on the let) at Dome A

(4,040m above the sea level). They have already

achieved two campaigns in 2005 and 2006 and they

installed automated instruments to measure the at-

mospheric turbulence above Dome A.

From 2000 to the frst winterover in 2005, site testing observations could be led only during the summer cam-

paigns (rom December to February). Here in 2002, an astronomer observed atmospheric uctuations in ront

o the hal constructed Concordia station.

2007-2008 Summer Campaign

Considered as one of the leaders

of the development of astronomyin Antarctica and mainly at the

South Pole, Martin Arthur

Pomerantz did all his scientic

career at the Bartol Research

Institute (University of Delaware).

During the International

Geophysical Year, the study

of cosmic rays, his primary

speciality, drove him to Thule,

in the Arctic (Groenland).

This rst polar experience led

him to McMurdo in 1959 then to

the South Pole in 1964. Convinced

that the South Pole is an ideal

location for astronomy, he initiated

several astrophysical collaborations

in various domains: solar physics,

cosmological microwave

background, neutrino detection

In honour of this exceptional

contribution, NSF inauguratedat the South Pole in 1995

one of the buildings dedicated

to the CMB observations: MAPO

(Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory).

It was the last of his 26 missions

at the South Pole.

M A r T i n A r T h u rp o M e r A n T z1916-2008


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19


These stations allow atmospheric cha-

racterization rom the near UV to the

submillimetre-wave range all year long.Since 2005, date o the frst wintering at

Concordia, the various site testing ins-

truments are maintained during succes-

sive winterovers. The ground layer which

concentrates the essential o the turbu-

lence is now becoming precisely cha-

racterized thanks to the accumulation o

such measurements.

In the rame o this race to the high pla-

teau, the European network ARENA be-

gins its activities in 2006. It brings together

the European and Australian astronomersin order to defne the basis o a uture in-

ternational observatory at Dome C, and

at the end o 2009 it proposes the present

roadmap. Besides, Chinese and Japanese

teams are seeking to develop astronomy,

at Dome A and Dome F, respectively. .

Mario Zucchelli was one of the

main gures of the Italian Research

programme in Antarctica.

With an initial training as nuclear

physicist, he was appointed director

in 1975 of the most important

Italian nuclear research center until

1987, the Brasimone Research

Centre. Then he was appointed

director of the Antarctica Italian

programme for which he lead 15

expeditions until his death in 2003.

During these 16 years, he initiated

several international collaborations:

for instance, the ice coring European

programme EPICA or the French-Italian

agreement signed in 1993 for

the construction of the Concordia

station. To honour him, PNRA

decided in 2004 to give his name

to the coastal station of Terra Nova,

one of the stopping places towards

Concordia.

M A r i o z u C C h e l l i1944-2003

The project to gather skills and re-

sources o several European and

Australian laboratories to imple-

ment an international astronomical obser-

vatory at the Concordia station Dome C

came into existence in the early 2000s.

It was basically motivated by the extensive

site testing experiments made by various

laboratories in France, Italy and Australia,the important involvement o the Italian

community to set up an inrared telescope

(IRAIT), and the desire to implement opti-

cal/IR intererometric arrays and to access

new spectral windows in the thermal inra-

red and Terahertz ranges. The exceptional

seeing conditions measured above a thin

turbulent layer o a ew tens o meters sti-

mulated the high angular resolution and

intererometric communities. The exceptio-

nal transparency o the earth atmosphere

in the ar inrared and in the submillimetre-

wave range was another strong incentive toraise the interest o astrophysicists.

The primary role o the roadmap is to

provide a comprehensive and consistent

plan or the development o an optimised

research inrastructure or European as-

tronomy in Antarctica in the mid range

(2010-2020) and to envision even more

ambitious project(s) beyond 2020, i An-

tarctic astronomy turns out to be viable

on the basis o the frst results obtained

with the pathfnder generation. The

roadmap aims at defning a number o

scientifc milestones and goals that canbe reached as well as the acilities that

are required to reach them. ARENA was

not set up to do science, nor was it a po-

litical tool supervised by agencies such as

ASTRONET. It was basically a bottom up

approach aimed at identiying the most

compelling science programmes that

can be proposed in the Antarctic condi-

tions, to evaluate the polar and logistics

constraints on instrumental devices and

their easibility in polar conditions and

to set up a comprehensive synthesis o

the atmospheric conditions based onstatistically signifcant sets o data. The

ARENA work programme was defned by

the end o 2005 and as it necessarily hap-

pens in a rapidly evolving discipline, the

management committee (Consortium

Management Committee) and coordina-

tor strived to adjust the work programme

according to the most recent site testing

results, and to welcome new expressions

o interest to join the network. The origi-

nal work programme was amended seve-

ral times and ater the Mid Term Review,

in 2007, the contract was extended or

one year (2009). Originally dedicated to

optical and inrared astronomy, it movedtoward a wider scope including cosmic

microwave background experiments, mil-

limetre wave astronomy and solar phy-

sics. ARENA encompassed most o the

astronomical activities that are already, or

could be, carried out in Antarctica, as well

as some aspects o atmospheric physics

directly linked to astronomy.

The ARENA work programme is split in

fve networking activities dedicated to:

Management (including public outreach

actions) (NA1),Site assessment and provision o an

access to a dedicated database (NA2),

Instrumentation in polar environment

(NA3),

Logistics (NA4),

Astrophysical science cases (NA5).

Each o these activities are supervising

a number o tasks (see Table 1).

ARENA organized 11 dedicated workshops

and 3 plenary conerences (see Table 2) to

oster close contact between researchers,

engineers, industrial companies and di-

rectors o polar institutes. This permanentcontact was essential to construct this

roadmap. The proceedings o the coner-

ences are published by Les Editions de

Physique (EDP)in its EAS Series (volumes

25, 33, 40). Other more inormal meetings

were organized in parallel by the working

groups. The presentation made at these

workshops are available at the ARENA

website. The website (http://arena.unice.

r) was opened at the University o Nice

to provide the necessary inormation and

news o the consortium. To complement

the ARENA web portal, a special site de-dicated to the public outreach was set

up and is maintained at the University o

Lige (http://www.arena.ulg.ac.be) (see

Chapter 6). Each networking activity was

subdivided into tasks chaired by expert

leaders belonging to various partners la-

1c How ARENA

worked


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hw ArenA wkd

5 netwokig Activities

Management o the CoordinationAction (including public outreach) (NA1)

Site quality assessment (NA2)

Toward large astronomicalinstruments or Antarctica (NA3)

Logistics and operations (NA4)

Which astrophysics at Dome C ? (NA5)

6 wokig goups

Wide-feld optical/IR astronomy

Submillimetre-wave (THz) astronomy

Optical/IR intererometry

Long time-series photometric observations

Cosmic Microwave Background

Solar astrophysics

Tasks ad subtasks

Conerences and workshops

repots

Deliveables

roadmap

outcome o ARENA was basically to do-

cument as thoroughly as possible the pro-

jects that the WG supports and to submit

their conclusions in the shape o a suite orecommendations to these organizations

(see Chapter 8). It is also likely that the

overall concept o European Astronomy

in Antarctica will be peer-reviewed by

the European Science Foundation (ESF).

For obvious reasons o unding and logis-

tics, it is clear that only a raction o the

projects herewith proposed will eventual-

ly be unded and carried out all the way

to completion. Only those which will pro-

ve their scientifc excellence, their unam-

biguous support by a wide international

community, their technical easibility and

that will match the present logistics capa-

bilities possibly slightly improved pro-

vided by the polar agencies will have a

chance to be materialized at least in the

orthcoming decade. .

o ARENA. These were also invited spea-

kers at the Frascati conerence who provi-

ded comments and eedback on the pro-

posed roadmap, as well as participated inthe various round tables held at the end

o each session o the conerence. The

fnal version o the WG reports takes into

account the comments and reections

made at this conerence. The WGs made

their own selection o projects to be sup-

ported. The ARENA CMC - although this

was not unanimous - decided not to make

any ranking o the projects proposed by

the dierent working groups, recognizing

that they deal with very dierent areas o

astronomy and that ARENA was not the

appropriate body to provide relative ran-

kings, or instance CMB or solar projects.

Moreover, it is the role o the national (and

international) agencies - and their evalua-

tion committees - as well as European

ERA-NET such as ASTRONET to set up an

overall policy o the discipline. One o the

boratory and coordinated by the NA lea-

ders. There are 22 such tasks (see Table 1).

Their leaders were in charge o producing

the 28 deliverables due to the European

Commission (seeChapter 2). They wereproduced according to a pre-established

agenda and were attached to the 3 inte-

rim annual scientifc reports (Reporting

Period 1, 2, 3) and the fnal report (2010)

They were eventually approved by the

Project Ofcer. All these documents are

available at the website. The task o de-

veloping the roadmap began in 2007.

With the mandate and the approval o

the ARENA CMC, 6 working groups (WG)

were established at the 2nd Conerence in

Potsdam (2007) to document 6 most pro-

mising astrophysical areas and a plan o

appropriate instrumental projects or the

next decade (2010-2020) together with a

long term vision. One chair and one co-

chair per WG were appointed in October

2007, these were given the responsability

to designate members or associates rom

the academic or industrial community,not necessarily belonging to the ARENA

consortium. They worked independently,

held specifc workshops and contribu-

ted considerably to the fnal 3rd ARENA

Conerence in 2009 (see Members list

of WG in annex). Each WG was entrusted

to elaborate its own roadmap by preparing

a short report and to make their own selec-

tion o projects to be supported. The prepa-

ration was made in three iterations, a frst

version was presented to the CMC in De-

cember 2008, then a second one was pre-

pared or the 3rd ARENA Conerence held

in Frascati in May 2009 (Spinoglio & Epch-

tein, 2010, EDP, EAS vol. 40) and the fnal

version is basically the matter o Chapter 4

o this roadmap. The second version was

distributed to leading researchers in the

relevant areas who were independent

Nationaland international

agencies


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Task Title Taskleader(s)

nA1 managementofthecoordinationaction Coordinator : Nicolas Epchtein

(CNRS - Fizeau, Nice, France)1.1 Contractual management Marie-Laure Pronne (CNRS - Fizeau, Nice, France)

1.2 Scientic management CMC members (c. annexes)

1.3 Inormation, communication and public outreach Cyrille Baudouin and Marie-Laure Pronne (CNRS -Fizeau, Nice, France), Anna Pospiezsalska- Surdej(Universit de Lige)

1.4 Technical management NA leaders

nA2 sitequalityassessment NA leader : Roland Gredel

(MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany)

2.1 Parameters review Jean Vernin (CNRS - Fizeau, Nice, France)

2.2 Synthesis o observations at Dome C Roland Gredel (MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany),

Aziz Ziad (CNRS - Fizeau, Nice, France)

2.3 Modelling the site properties or science optimisation idem

nA3 towardlargeastronomical NA leader : Jean-Pierre Swings instrumentsforantarctica (Universit de Lige, Belgium)

3.1 Low emissivity optical congurations or inrared and Carlos Eiroa (UAM, Madrid, Spain)

high dynamical imaging or Antarctic conditions

3.2 Telescope and instrumentation robotization Klaus Strassmeier (AIP, Potsdam, Germany)

3.3 Focal instrumentation or Antarctic telescopes Jean-Pierre Maillard (CNRS - IAP, Paris, France)

3.4 The International Robotic Antarctic Inrared Telescope (IRAIT) Gino Tosti (Universit degli Studi di Perugia, Italy)

3.5 The IRAIT ocal instrumentation Oscar Straniero (INAF, Teramo, Italy)

nA4 logisticsandoperationsatdomec NA leader : Maurizio Candidi

(INAF, Rome, Italy)

4.1 Logistics or the transportation o large astronomical instruments Patrice Godon (IPEV, Brest, France),

and implication or construction o astronomical equipments Antonio Cucinotta (PNRA, Rome, Italy)

4.2 Logistics or the construction o large buildings and enclosures idem

or telescopes at Dome C

4.3 Consumable needs and requests to the operators; power supply, Alain Pierre (IPEV, Brest, France),

fuids and communications Chiara Montanari (PNRA, Rome, Italy)

4.4 Human questions - Training o polar teams Claude Bachelard (IPEV, Brest, France)

4.5 Environmental considerations Yves Frnot (IPEV, Brest, France),Sandro Torcini (PNRA, Rome, Italy)

4.6 Telecommunications Dominique Fleury (IPEV, Brest, France),Marco Maggiore (PNRA, Rome, Italy)

nA5 whichastrophysicsatdomec? NA leader : Hans Zinnecker

(AIP, Potsdam, Germany)

5.1 Wide-eld imaging surveys in the thermal inrared Maurizio Busso (Universit degli Studi di Perugia, Italy),Mark McCaughrean (University o Exeter, United Kingdom)

5.2 New windows in the ar inrared Pierre-Olivier Lagage (CEA/IRFU, Saclay, France)

5.3 Time variability: new domains or ground based high precision Heike Rauer (DLR, Berlin, Germany)

and long duration time-series photometry and spectroscopy

5.3.1 Asteroseismology and helioseismology Eric Fossat (CNRS - Fizeau, Nice, France)

5.3.2 Photometric search or extrasolar planets Hans Deeg (IAC, Tenerie, Spain)

5.3.3 Solar-stellar connection Klaus Strassmeier (AIP, Potsdam, Germany)

5.4 Obtaining the ultimate angular resolution Farrokh Vakili (CNRS - Fizeau/OCA, Nice, France)

5.5 Spectroscopy and spectro-imagery Carlos Abia (Universidad de Granada, Spain)

Tab 1 lst f ArenA tasks


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and

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Poster o the 1stARENA Conerence Poster o the 2ndARENA Conerence

21

Type Title Date Venue

2006

Workshop Intererometry 1 May 10-12 Nice, France(in collaboration with OPTICON JRA4)

Workshop Wide-feld imaging at Dome C June 14-17 Paris, France

Workshop Visit to IRAIT September 12-13 Perugia, Italy

1st ARENA Large Astronomical Inrastructures October 16-19 Rosco, France

CONFERENCE at CONCORDIA, prospects and constraints

or Antarctic Optical/IR Astronomy1

2007

Workshop Telescope and instrument robotization at Dome C March 26-28 Puerto Santiago, Tenerie, Spain

Workshop Site testing at Dome C June 11-13 Rome, Italy

Workshop Submillimetre astronomy at Dome C June 25-27 Saclay, France

2nd ARENA The Astrophysical Science Cases at Dome C 2 September 17-21 Potsdam, Germany

CONFERENCE

2008

Workshop Wide-feld telescopes March 26-27 Exeter, United Kingdom

Workshop Spectroscopy April 16-18 Granada, Spain

Workshop Time-series observations rom Dome C September 17-19 Catania, Italy

Workshop Intererometry 2 October 13-14 Garching-bei-Mnchen, Germany

2009 2009

3rd

ARENA An astronomical Observatory at CONCORDIA May 11-15 Frascati, ItalyCONFERENCE (Antarctica) or the next decade 3

Workshop Progress on site testing December 10 Nice, France

Tab 2 ArenA mtgs


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Poster o the 3rdARENA Conerence2ndARENA Conerence attendance in Potsdam

The Concordiastro

towers

3


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ARENAdeliverables


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25


2 ARENA deliverables

ARENA was committed to prepare periodi-

cally a set o contractual deliverables consis-

ting o reports on instrumental studies, tools

and data base providing access to site as-

sessments, and publication o proceedingso conerences or summaries o workshops

accessible through a web interace. These

deliverables were prepared under the su-

pervision o the networking activity leaders

with contributions o the task leaders and

Activity Deliverable Workpackage Deliveredby Issued

NA No Name TaskNo Contractor(s) inmonths

NA2 D2.1 Atmospheric turbulence 2.1 CNRS 6parameters review

NA3 D3.5 Six month reports on the IRAIT 3.4/ 3.5 CNRS 6

activity at Dome C

NA5 D5.4 Presentations o the workshops (2006)

(ARENA website/CD Rom)



NA2 D2.2 Analysis and archiving o Dome C 2.2 CNRS 12site testing data

NA2 D2.3 Update o site parameters in regards 2.1 MPIA 24o science goals

NA2 D2.4 Analysis and archiving o 1stWinter 2.3 CNRS 24

campaign data

NA2 D2.5 Implication o relevant parameters 2.3 CNRS 24D3.2 on science goals, ground-based

instruments and site inrastructures

NA3 D3.4 Proceedings o the workshop 3.3 CNRS 24

on ocal instrumentation

NA3 D3.5 Six months report on the IRAIT 3.4/3.5 INAF/UNIPG

activity at Dome C 18

NA3 D3.5 Six months report on the IRAIT 3.4/3.5 INAF/UNIPGactivity at Dome C 24

NA5 D5.2 Published Proceedings All tasks CNRS/INAF 18

o Conerence 1

NA2 D5.4 Presentations o the workshops (2007) All tasks All 24NA3 (ARENA website/CD Rom)

The ARENA network

members have delivered

about 30 documents,from technical concept

studies to conference

proceedings.

These documents were

prepared by more than

100 experts from

8 countries with the aim

of documenting in depth

the project of an

astronomical observatory

at the Concordia station.

Table3Listofdeliverables(2006,reportingperiod1)


annexed to the 4 annual scientic reports

(RP) to the European Commission. The

present roadmap document constitutes the

nal deliverable. The ollowing tables (see

Table 3 to Table 6) summarize the titles othese deliverables and the main contrac-

tors involved in their preparation. All

these documents are accessible through

the ARENA website (http://arena.unice.fr)

upon request to the coordinator.


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ARENAdeliverables



NA2 D2.6 Analysis and archiving o 2nd Winter 2.2 CNRS/INAF/ 36

campaign data MPIA

NA2 D2.7 Update o the implication o relevant 2.2 CNRS/INAF/ 36parameters on science goals, MPIA

ground-based instruments and

site inrastructures

NA3 D3.1 A report on the general constraints 3.1 CNRS 36linked to polar conditions on optical

confguration and particularly

on adaptative optics

NA3 D3.4 Report on the workshops on wide-feld 3.3 CNRS/UGR 36telescope and ocal instrumentation

(Exeter, Granada)

NA3 D3.5 Six month report on IRAIT and AMICA 3.4/3.5 UNIPG/ 36

activity at Dome C INAF

NA5 D5.2 Published Proceedings o Conerence 2 All tasks AIP/DLR /CNRS 33

NA5 D5.4 Presentations o the workshops (2008) All tasks All 36

(ARENA website/CD Rom)


NA No Name TaskNo Contractor(s) inmonthsNA2 D2.8 Book synthesizing the site qualifcation 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 CNRS/MPIA 43

With conclusions on the opportunities

NA2 D2.9 Annual workshop on progress o the CNRS/MPIA 43

abc site testing (workshop presentations)

NA3 D3.2 General guidelines on the design 3.1 42

o large IR (adaptive) optics

NA4 D4.1 Report on the logistics o Dome C 4.1 IPEV/PNRA 42or large astronomical inrastructures

NA4 D4.2 Report on the construction o large 4.2 IPEV/PNRA 42buildings or astronomy at Dome C

NA4 D4.3 Report on consumables requirements 4.3 IPEV/PNRA 42

or large astronomical inrastructures

and proposed solutions

NA4 D4.4 Medical and psychological 4.4 IPEV/PNRA 42

recommendations or astronomical

activities at Dome C

NA4 D4.5 Report on impact study 4.5 IPEV/PNRA 42

on the environment

NA4 D4.6 Report on telecommunications 4.6 IPEV/PNRA 42

NA5 D5.3 Published proceedings o Conerence 3 All tasks INAF/CNRS 46

NA5 D5.5 Roadmap (this book) and executive All tasks All 46

summary o recommendations

to the national and international

agencies (ESO-ESA) or an astrophysical

programme at Dome C




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ent

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PAIX

GSM

DIMM

MOSP

SBM

ASTEPSUD

ASTEP400

LUCAS


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3

3a Available dataSite quality assessment

Site qualication

is a prerequisite for

proceeding with future,

expensive astronomical

developments in

Antarctica. Measurement

and assessment

of relevant atmospheric

parameters already

gathered must be

archived, calibrated

and put at the disposal

of scientists and decision

makers. A major task

of ARENA was

to synthesize these data,

provide easy accessto them through Internet

databases and to identify

the as yet undocumented

parameters for future

investigations.

The release o site testing data to the

community via an electronically ac-

cessible data bank was one o the

main objectives o the ARENA contract.

Their access is now available via the ARENA

website (http://arena.unice.fr).The database

includes the seeing and isoplanatic angle

data taken during the summer and winter

campaigns starting in December 2004,

and the meteo-balloon data taken during

the 2001-2004 period in the ramework

o the Concordiastro1 programme. The

site provides a link to the AASTINO data-

base as well. Data taken during the PNRA

campaigns are available via the web-ac-

cessible database at www.climantartide.it.

Precipitablewatervapour(PWV)Measurements o the precipitable water

vapour (PWV) have been carried out

during the last decade and relatively ro-

bust statements are possible as ar as the

absolute values are concerned. Monthly

averages range rom 0.72(+- 0.20)mm in

December to 0.26 (+- 0.1)mm during the

March/April period. Variations in the PWV

by actors o 2-3 occur on a daily basis.A systematic monitoring o the short-

term variations in PWV is in progress at

the COCHISE submillimetre telescope.

The 200m bolometer camera CAMISTIC

rom CEA/Saclay, to be deployed at the

second Nasmyth ocus o IRAIT, will even-

tually sample small spatial fuctuations

in the atmospheric emission that arise

rom small water clouds in the lower at-

mosphere, thus allowing to determine the

stability o the sky noise at this requency.

Measurements demonstrate that the 200m

window opens at a transmission level

about 20% during 25% o the time. De-

tailed atmospheric transmission models

(e.g., MOLIERE) have then been used to

estimate the PWV and show that observa-

tions at 350m and 450m are possible all

year, compared to only 30% o the time on

the Llano Chajnantor. The measurements

and model calculations indicate that

Dome C is probably the best site known

on Earth or submillimetre astronomy.

A low atmospheric water vapour content

results in higher transmission in the near-

to mid-inrared windows and an exten-

ded wavelength coverage. The highest

benets or observations in the thermal

inrared regime arise rom the very low

temperatures at Dome C, as discussed in

the ollowing section.

SkybrightnessatinfraredwavelengthsAt wavelengths above 2.3m, the domi-

nant parameter that determines the bri-

ghtness o the sky during day- and night

time is the temperature o the atmos-

phere. In the thermal inrared, most o the

observing programmes are background

limited, and the integration time needed

to reach a given signal to noise ratio is

proportional to the sky background.

Data obtained at the South Pole demons-

trate that compared to the mid-latitude

observatories, the sky is darker by actors

o 10-100. Daytime measurements o the

inrared sky brightness at Dome C were

obtained during the two summer seasons

in 2003 and 2004.

Sky brightness measurements in the 2-28m

wavelength region will eventually be ob-

tained with the AMICA camera on IRAIT,

1Concordiastro is a scientifc programmecarried out by LUAN Laboratory (Universit

de Nice Sophia Antipolis), with contributions

o Observatoire de la Cte dAzur (OCA)

and Osservatorio di Capodimonte at Napoli

(OAC), and unded by the polar institutes

IPEV (France) and PNRA (Italy).

Site-testing

instruments at Dome C


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perormance optimisation o high an-

gular resolution techniques (HAR). For

telescope diameters D > L0, the lowest

Zernike aberrations modes are largely

reduced, thus minimizing the need to

correct ore.g., tip/tilt. The required stroke

o deormable mirrors depends on L0 as

well, and the design o GLAO and MCAO

systems depends critically on the vertical

variation o Cn2(h) and the outer scale

L0(h). The outer scale has implications or

the design o ringe trackers or interero-

metric systems as well.

Using a campaign with the generalized

seeing monitor (GSM), very small values

o L0

10C/hour in summer. Temperature jumps

in the winter exceeding 10C in the matter

o minutes have been reported. The large

temperature variations pose a severe pro-

blem to the control o the thermal envi-

ronment o an optical telescope and its

enclosure, and very likely limit the image

quality that can be reached in optical

and near-inrared imaging altogether.

Global seeing statistics or the three available DIMM data (Aristidi et al. A&A 499, 955).

P75 and P25 are the 75% and 25% percentiles. The data have been collected during 3 years and

hal (Dec. 2004 to April 2008) except or the DIMM installed at an elevation o 20m or which data

are limited to the period rom July to October 2005. The seeing is given in arcsec at l= 0.5m.

Generalized

seeing monitor

(GSM)

Table7 DIMMdataElevation 3m 8m 20m

summer winter total summer winter total

Mean 1.06 2.51 1.83 0.69 1.72 1.23 1.10

Median 0.95 2.37 1.67 0.57 1.65 0.98 0.84

P75 1.32 2.98 2.38 0.86 2.32 1.69 1.55

P25 0.70 1.86 1.06 0.40 0.83 0.52 0.43

Max 4.76 9.26 9.78 7.63 9.09 15.05 8.20

Min 0.03 0.24 0.03 0.03 0.13 0.

Vision Antarctic Astronomy

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Transcript of Vision Antarctic Astronomy