Astronomy from the Polar Plateau
The AASTINO at Dome C, on a perfect summer's day.
Photo: John Storey | The polar plateaus are extremely cold and dry and the air is very stable. This makes them the best sites on the Earth's surface to conduct a wide range of astronomical observations.
This project aims to quantify these conditions at:
- Summit in Greenland
- Ellesmere Island in Canada
- Domes A and C on the Antarctic plateau
This will begin the process of turning these sites into front-line observatories.
An automated observatory, which can gather data over the winter, is scheduled to be delivered to Dome A through a Chinese-led traverse in the summer of 2007-08.
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