1. An Optical / IR Observatory on The Antarctic Plateau
Lifan Wang
George Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University
Cook’s Branch, April 12, 2012

2. The Site
Dome A
Elevation 4,091 m (13,422 ft)
Coordinates: -80d22m, E77d 21m

3. The highest peak on the Plateau
A team of Pioneers led by Yuanshen Li of Polar Research Institute
Of China arrived at Dome Argus, Antarctica on Jan 18, 2005.

4. Dome A
China/Australia/USA

5. CSTAR
2008－2011

6. Kunlun Station Jan 27, 2009

7. Scientific Considerations
Time Domain Astronomy – Requires Clear Sky
High Spatial Resolution, Wide Field Astronomy – Requires Clear Sky, Good Seeing
Wide Field Infrared Survey – Requires Clear Sky, Good Seeing, and Low Sky Background
Terahertz Telescope – Requires Low PWV

8. Major Relevant Features
Continuous observing time for more than 3 months
Low temperature, low sky background in thermo IR
Low turbulence boundary layers, good seeing
Dry air, high transmission in IR
Large Isoplanatic Angle
Aurora
High relative humidity
Difficult to access
Less dark time

9. Zou et al. 2010

10. Zou et al. 2010

11. Zou et al. 2010

12. OH (near IR)
O2 (IR+Herzberg, Chamberlain bands)
NO2 (pseudocont.)
Na (seas. variation);
Hg, Na lines
Weak continuum

13. Zodiacal Light; Diffuse Milky Way light; Faint stars and galaxies
[OI]6300,6364 (300km)
N 5200 (258km)

14. Sonic Radar – SNODAR, UNSW, CCAA

17. Dome C
Dome A
Height of Turbulence Layer at Dome A & C
Boner et al. 2010

18. Precipitable Water Vapor

19. Nigel at Dome A – An instrument for sky emission
Black spectrum: Hill & Jones JGR 105, 9421 (2000)

20. IR Background
It is also noteworthy that there are summer time IR background measurement at
Dome C (Walden et al. 2005). The summer time 3-20 m backgrounds were found to be very stable and at levels comparable to the measurements at South Pole during the winter.

21. Example Science CSTAR Data An Exoplanet Candidate
CSTAR – an array of cm telescopes
Example Science CSTAR Data An Exoplanet Candidate
Black dots: Raw data
Red dots:
Data binned to 10 min interval

24. d Scuti star Uninterrupted 4.5-d light curve
(representing 3.5% of the entire data).
Folded light curve using P = d; the photometric uncertainty is 1.5 mmag/bin.
Lingzhi Wang, Lucas Macri et al. 2011

26. Survey Efficiency
Define the survey efficiency k as the sky area a telescope can survey to a given S/N for a resolved source in a specific exposure time:
D-Diameter of the telescope
W-Field of view of the camera
q-fwhm of the image (seeing or diffraction limit)
B-Sky surface brightness
For an unresolved diffuse source:
If the background is lower by a factor of ,
as is the case for 2.4 micron at Dome A, a 0.5
meter telescope can survey as fast as a
meter telescope at a temperate site
A single KDUST field is 2 sq degree.

27. Antarctica Survey Telescopes

28. AST3
68/50cm Diameter
FoV 4.2 Sq Deg
1”/pix

29. Standard Candles

30. Sensitivity

31. Sensitivity

33. The first AST3 telescope was installed
on Jan. 24, Astronomical
operation began on March 15.

35. AST3 SN Survey/ DES Overlap SPT overlap area
SDSS Southern
Equatorial Stripe
Tie region
AST3 SN Survey/
DES Overlap
Schedule: Installation in
Survey Operation: 2012 – 2017
Data Products:
>2000 SNIa to z ~ 0.15
Core-collapse SNe; GRB; Orphan GRB afterglow
LMC continuous monitoring
–variable stars/microlensing/dark matter
Galactic center continuous monitoring
– variable stars/microlensing/transients
Galactic structure
– RR Lyrae/Cepheids

36. Supernova Cosmology More precise Hubble diagram
Peculiar motion of nearby galaxies
Measurement of s8
Dark matter and neutrino properties
Wang, 2007

37. Microlensing toward the LMC

38. Pop III SNe

39. Pop III SNe
KDUST2.5
KDUST4.0
AST3!!!

40. Survey Efficiency
Define the survey efficiency k as the sky area a telescope can survey to a given S/N for a resolved source in a specific exposure time:
D-Diameter of the telescope
W-Field of view of the camera
q-fwhm of the image (seeing or diffraction limit)
B-Sky surface brightness
For an unresolved diffuse source:
If the background is lower by a factor of ,
as is the case for 2.4 micron at Dome A, a 0.5
meter telescope can survey as fast as a
meter telescope at a temperate site
A single KDUST field is 2 sq degree.

41. z=7 Quasar and VISTA Filters
SDSS bands
VISTA bands
May, 2010

42. IR Background
It is also noteworthy that there are summer time IR background measurement at
Dome C (Walden et al. 2005). The summer time 3-20 m backgrounds were found to be very stable and at levels comparable to the measurements at South Pole during the winter.

43. AST3 NIR Synoptic Infrared Survey Telescope
In KDARK, compared to 2MASS, an increase of efficiency by
(2048/256)2 * (0.5/1.3)2 * 50 = 473 times
Comparable to VISTA for point source
3 times faster than VISTA for diffuse source
GRBs at z ~15 !?

44. Kunlun Dark Universe Telescope
Intermediate Scale Project Supernovae
Weak Lensing
Strong Lensing
BAO?

46. PILOT/KDUST Sensitivity

47. UltraVISTA is an Ultra Deep, near-infrared survey with the new VISTA surveys telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Over the course of 5 years, UltraVISTA will repeatedly image the COSMOS field in 5 bands resulting in three key surveys:
anultra-deep broad-band (Y, J, H, Ks) survey (1408hr) covering 0.73 deg²
a deep broad-band (Y, J, H, Ks) survey (212hr) covering the full 1.5deg² field
a narrow-band (180hr) survey covering the same region as the ultra-deep broad-band survey.

48. UltraVISTA
The position of the UltraVISTA ultra-deep broad band and narrow band survey overlaid on the KPNO Ks image of the COSMOS field. The x and y axes are RA and Dec respectively. The coloured outlines are as follows:
Green: ACS I band
Blue: CFHTLS
Red: UltraVISTA ultra-deep strips
Yellow: UltraVISTA ultra-deep strips with 1 arcmin trimming
             (trimmed due to incomplete coverage from dithering)
The coordinates of the corners of the ultra-deep field (yellow boxes) are (in decimal RA and Dec):
strip4: , 2.76, , 2.76, , 1.66, , 1.66
strip3: , 2.76, , 2.76, , 1.66, , 1.66
strip2: , 2.76, , 2.76, , 1.66, , 1.66
strip1: , 2.76, , 2.76 ,150.57, 1.66, , 1.66
Column 2 (as labelled on the plot) is the location of the deep IRAC strip.

49. One Single KDUST Exposure
For Comparison: KDUST Reaches HUDF Depth at 750nm in
83 Hours for point sources and 251 hours for diffuse source
Hubble Ultra Deep Field

51. Supernova Survey in Antarctica
4 meter Aperture
1-3.5 micron coverage
5000 supernovae up to z ~ 2 (rest frame NIR)
2000 supernovae with z ~ 2-4 (unexplored territory)
JWST target feeder for spectroscopy and photometry
E-ELT/GSMT target feeder for spectroscopy (photometry?)

55. Zhao et al. 2010, PASP

56. Zhao et al. 2010, PASP

57. Zhao et al. 2010, PASP

58. 10 rest frame days after explosion
The exposure time required to obtain S/N = 5 five rest frame days after explosion for a canonical supernova using an 8-m telescope at Dome A. Note the change in scale between the two plots.
10 rest frame days after explosion

59. The exposure time required to type a canonical supernova using an 8-m telescope at Dome A, with S/N = 5 in a λ/δλ = 150 element for the restframe μm SiII feature. The restricted redshift range corresponds to when the line is within the Kdark window.

60. Summary Dome A site survey is going on, so far so good
The first of the AST3 triplet is installed and is in science operation
A pathfinder telescope is needed before we can build a larger telescope
KDUST2.5 can make a significant contribution to cosmology
KDUST4.0 working primarily in the NIR will provide deep maps of the universe

62. Dark time zenith night sky brightness
measured at various observatories
Site
Year
S10.7cm U B V R I
MJy
La Silla
1978
1.5 -
22.8
21.7
20.8
19.5
Kitt Peak
1987
0.9
22.9
21.9
CTIO
1987-8
22.0
22.7
21.8
20.9
19.9
Calar Alto
1990
2.0
22.2
22.6
21.5
20.6
18.7
La Palma
1994-6
0.8
21.0
20.0
Mauna Kea
1995-6
Paranal
2000-1
1.8
22.3
21.6
19.7
mag arcsec-2
Mattila et al. 1996; Pilachowski et al. 1989; Walker 1987, 1988; Leinert et al. 1998; Krisciunas 1997.