Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B
The Antarctic plateau contains the best sites on earth for many forms of astronomy, but none of the existing bases was selected with astronomy as the primary motivation. In this article, we try to systematically compare the merits of potential observatory sites.We include South Pole, Domes A, C, and...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.0905.4156 2023-05-15T13:31:09+02:00 Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B Saunders, Will Lawrence, Jon S. Storey, John W. V. Ashley, Michael C. B. Kato, Seiji Minnis, Patrick Winker, David M. Liu, Guiping Kulesa, Craig 2009 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0905.4156 https://arxiv.org/abs/0905.4156 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/605780 arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 2009 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0905.4156 https://doi.org/10.1086/605780 2022-04-01T15:06:39Z The Antarctic plateau contains the best sites on earth for many forms of astronomy, but none of the existing bases was selected with astronomy as the primary motivation. In this article, we try to systematically compare the merits of potential observatory sites.We include South Pole, Domes A, C, and F, and also Ridge B (running northeast from Dome A), and what we call "Ridge A" (running southwest from Dome A). Our analysis combines satellite data, published results, and atmospheric models, to compare the boundary layer, weather, aurorae, airglow, precipitable water vapor, thermal sky emission, surface temperature, and the free atmosphere, at each site. We find that all Antarctic sites are likely to be compromised for optical work by airglow and aurorae. Of the sites with existing bases, Dome A is easily the best overall; but we find that Ridge A offers an even better site. We also find that Dome F is a remarkably good site. Dome C is less good as a thermal infrared or terahertz site, but would be able to take advantage of a predicted "OH hole" over Antarctica during spring. : Revised version. 16 pages, 21 figures (22 in first version). Submitted to PASP 16/05/09, accepted 13/07/09; published 20/08/09 Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica South pole South pole DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Antarctic Dome F ENVELOPE(39.700,39.700,-77.317,-77.317) South Pole The Antarctic |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM FOS Physical sciences |
spellingShingle |
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM FOS Physical sciences Saunders, Will Lawrence, Jon S. Storey, John W. V. Ashley, Michael C. B. Kato, Seiji Minnis, Patrick Winker, David M. Liu, Guiping Kulesa, Craig Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B |
topic_facet |
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM FOS Physical sciences |
description |
The Antarctic plateau contains the best sites on earth for many forms of astronomy, but none of the existing bases was selected with astronomy as the primary motivation. In this article, we try to systematically compare the merits of potential observatory sites.We include South Pole, Domes A, C, and F, and also Ridge B (running northeast from Dome A), and what we call "Ridge A" (running southwest from Dome A). Our analysis combines satellite data, published results, and atmospheric models, to compare the boundary layer, weather, aurorae, airglow, precipitable water vapor, thermal sky emission, surface temperature, and the free atmosphere, at each site. We find that all Antarctic sites are likely to be compromised for optical work by airglow and aurorae. Of the sites with existing bases, Dome A is easily the best overall; but we find that Ridge A offers an even better site. We also find that Dome F is a remarkably good site. Dome C is less good as a thermal infrared or terahertz site, but would be able to take advantage of a predicted "OH hole" over Antarctica during spring. : Revised version. 16 pages, 21 figures (22 in first version). Submitted to PASP 16/05/09, accepted 13/07/09; published 20/08/09 |
format |
Text |
author |
Saunders, Will Lawrence, Jon S. Storey, John W. V. Ashley, Michael C. B. Kato, Seiji Minnis, Patrick Winker, David M. Liu, Guiping Kulesa, Craig |
author_facet |
Saunders, Will Lawrence, Jon S. Storey, John W. V. Ashley, Michael C. B. Kato, Seiji Minnis, Patrick Winker, David M. Liu, Guiping Kulesa, Craig |
author_sort |
Saunders, Will |
title |
Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B |
title_short |
Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B |
title_full |
Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B |
title_fullStr |
Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B |
title_full_unstemmed |
Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B |
title_sort |
where is the best site on earth? domes a, b, c and f, and ridges a and b |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0905.4156 https://arxiv.org/abs/0905.4156 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(39.700,39.700,-77.317,-77.317) |
geographic |
Antarctic Dome F South Pole The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Dome F South Pole The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica South pole South pole |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica South pole South pole |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/605780 |
op_rights |
arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0905.4156 https://doi.org/10.1086/605780 |
_version_ |
1766016380691283968 |