JENAM SPECIAL SESSION 4: Astronomy from the Antarctic plateau

23-24 August 2007

Contact: Vincent Coudé du Foresto (France)

This will be a timely topic given the opening of the Concordia station for winter over observations, and would help promote its transformation into a European Large Research Facility. The high Antarctic plateau has been identified in the last few years as a site of exceptional potential for ground based astronomy. Its main characteristics are a combination of good sky transparency, low temperatures, very dry air, and benign turbulence above the ground layer. For some applications, this enables near-space quality observations at a fraction of the access cost. The logistics have already been developed for the French-Italian Concordia station at Dome C which enables winterovers since 2005.

The purpose of this Special Session is to investigate the science potential of the Antarctic plateau, and most notably in the fields discussed in the other sessions of this JENAM meeting. A general presentation of Concordia will also be provided, as well as site testing activity and latest site testing results.

SOC / Conveners

V. Coudé du Foresto (LESIA - Paris Observatory, France)
E. Fossat (LUAN - Univ. Nice, France)
M. Giard (CESR - Toulouse, France)
A. Glindeman (ESO)
M. McCaughrean (Exeter Univ, UK)
J. Surdej (Univ. Liège, Belgium)
H. Zinnecker (Potsdam Univ., Germany)

Topics: