Airglow and Aurorae at Dome A, Antarctica

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• Main Authors: Sims, Geoff, Ashley, Michael C. B., Cui, Xiangqun, Everett, Jon R., Feng, LongLong, Gong, Xuefei, Hengst, Shane, Hu, Zhongwen, Lawrence, Jon S., Luong-van, Daniel M., Moore, Anna M., Riddle, Reed, Shang, Zhaohui, Storey, John W. V., Tothill, Nick, Travouillon, Tony, Wang, Lifan, Yang, Huigen, Yang, Ji, Zhou, Xu, Zhu, Zhenxi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2012
• Subjects: Astronomical Phenomena and Seeing; Antarctic; Pacific; Plato; Antarc*; Antarctica; Australian Antarctic Division; International Polar Year; Polar Research Institute of China; United States Antarctic Program
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1086/666861

Despite the absence of artificial light pollution at Antarctic plateau sites such as Dome A, other factors such as airglow, aurorae, and extended periods of twilight have the potential to adversely affect optical observations. We present a statistical analysis of the airglow and aurorae at Dome A using spectroscopic data from Nigel, an optical/near-IR spectrometer operating in the 300–850 nm range. These data complement photometric images from Gattini, a wide-field (90°) CCD camera with B, V, and R filters, allowing the background sky brightness to be disentangled from the various airglow and auroral emission lines. The median auroral contribution to the B, V, and R photometric bands is found to be 22.9, 23.4, and 23.0 mag arcsec^(-2), respectively. Auroral emissions most frequently occur between 10–23 hr local time, when up to 50% of observations are above airglow-level intensities. While infrequent, the strongest emissions detected occurred in the hours just prior to magnetic midnight. We are also able to quantify the amount of annual dark time available as a function of wavelength, as well as in the standard BVR photometric bands. On average, twilight ends when the Sun reaches a zenith distance of 102.6°. © 2012 The Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Received 2012 April 26; accepted 2012 May 22; published 2012 June 15. This research is supported by the Chinese PANDA International Polar Year project and the Polar Research Institute of China. The authors wish to thank all the members of the 2008/2009/2010 PRIC Dome A expeditions for their heroic efforts in reaching the site and for providing invaluable assistance to the expedition astronomers in setting up the PLATO observatory and its associated instrument suite. This research is financially supported by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Antarctic Division, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the US National Science Foundation, and the United States Antarctic Program. Additional financial ...