The PLATO Dome A Site-Testing Observatory : instrumentation and first results

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• Main Authors: Yang, H., Allen, G., Ashley, M. C. B., Bonner, C. S., Bradley, S., Cui, X., Everett, J. R., Feng, L., Gong, X., Hengst, S., Hu, J., Jiang, Z., Kulesa, C. A., Lawrence, J. S., Li, Y., Luong-Van, D., McCaughrean, M. J., Moore, A. M., Pennypacker, C., Qin, W., Riddle, R., Shang, Z., Storey, J. W. V., Sun, B., Suntzeff, N., Tothill, N. F. H., Travouillon, T., Walker, C. K., Wang, L., Yan, J., Yang, J., York, D., Yuan, X., Zhang, X., Zhang, Z., Zhou, X., Zhu, Z.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2009
• Subjects: Antarctic; Plato; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://authors.library.caltech.edu/14040/; https://authors.library.caltech.edu/14040/1/Yang2009p590.pdf; https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20090422-082809119

The PLATeau Observatory (PLATO) is an automated self-powered astrophysical observatory that was deployed to Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau, in 2008 January. PLATO consists of a suite of site-testing instruments designed to quantify the benefits of the Dome A site for astronomy, and science instruments designed to take advantage of the unique observing conditions. Instruments include CSTAR, an array of optical telescopes for transient astronomy; Gattini, an instrument to measure the optical sky brightness and cloud cover statistics; DASLE, an experiment to measure the statistics of the meteorological conditions within the near-surface layer; Pre-HEAT, a submillimeter tipping radiometer measuring the atmospheric transmission and water vapor content and performing spectral line imaging of the Galactic plane; and Snodar, an acoustic radar designed to measure turbulence within the near-surface layer. PLATO has run completely unattended and collected data throughout the winter 2008 season. Here we present a detailed description of the PLATO instrument suite and preliminary results obtained from the first season of operation.