Australia's Astronomy Program on the Antarctic Plateau

• Main Authors: Michael Burton, Michael Ashley, John Storey
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.296.426; http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jacara/Papers/pdf/aurora1.pdf

The Antarctic plateau o ers the promise of the best site conditions on the surface of the Earth for a wide range of astronomical observations. This is a result of the unique combination of cold, dry and tenuous air that is only found there. The Plateau reaches an elevation of over 4,000 m, has average winter-time temperatures of;60 C and has a precipitable water vapour column which canfallbelow 100 m. Winds are generally light, with the katabatic wind, originating on the highest parts of the Plateau, not reaching its full fury till near the coast. Weather conditions are stable, with minimal diurnal temperature uctuations. Taken together these conditions provide for an unsurpassed observing environment for Earth-based astronomers across wide ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. The new science it can engender will be signi cant. In particular, it will allow ustopursue \formation studies " through new observations in the infrared to millimetre spectral range. This includes the study of events such as the formation of galaxies, the birth of the rst stars in them and their subsequent evolution, the life cycle of the interstellar medium and the formation of individual stars and planets in our Galaxy. There are three primary reasons why this is so: the continuum emission from these events peaks in the infrared, the dominant cooling lines occur across this spectral range, and the cosmic microwave background peaks