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An Optical / IR Observatory on The Antarctic Plateau

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

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An Optical / IR Observatory on The Antarctic Plateau

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  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- 2008 China/Australia/USA

  5. CSTAR 2008－2011

  6. Kunlun StationJan 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

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

  16. Precipitable Water Vapor

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

  18. 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.

  19. CSTAR – an array of 4 14.5 cm telescopes Example ScienceCSTAR DataAn Exoplanet Candidate Black dots: Raw data Red dots: Data binned to 10 min interval

  20. dScuti star Uninterrupted 4.5-d light curve (representing 3.5% of the entire data). Folded light curve using P = 0.2193d; the photometric uncertainty is 1.5 mmag/bin. Lingzhi Wang, Lucas Macri et al. 2011

  21. Survey Efficiency Define the survey efficiency kas 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 50-100, as is the case for 2.4 micron at Dome A, a 0.5 meter telescope can survey as fast as a 3.5-5.0 meter telescope at a temperate site A single KDUST field is 2 sq degree.

  22. Antarctica Survey Telescopes

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

  24. Standard Candles

  25. Sensitivity

  26. Sensitivity

  27. The first AST3 telescope was installed on Jan. 24, 2012. Astronomical operation began on March 15.

  28. SPT overlap area Tie region SDSS Southern Equatorial Stripe • AST3 SN Survey/ • DES Overlap • Schedule: Installation in 2011-2012 • 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

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

  30. Microlensing toward the LMC

  31. Pop III SNe

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

  33. Survey Efficiency Define the survey efficiency kas 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 50-100, as is the case for 2.4 micron at Dome A, a 0.5 meter telescope can survey as fast as a 3.5-5.0 meter telescope at a temperate site A single KDUST field is 2 sq degree.

  34. z=7 Quasar and VISTA Filters VISTA bands SDSS bands

  35. 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.

  36. AST3 NIRSynoptic 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 !?

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

  38. PILOT/KDUST Sensitivity

  39. 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.

  40. 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: 149.33, 2.76, 149.46, 2.76, 149.46, 1.66, 149.33, 1.66 strip3: 149.70, 2.76, 149.83, 2.76, 149.83, 1.66, 149.70, 1.66 strip2: 150.06, 2.76, 150.20, 2.76, 150.20, 1.66, 150.06, 1.66 strip1: 150.43, 2.76, 150.57, 2.76 ,150.57, 1.66, 150.43, 1.66 Column 2 (as labelled on the plot) is the location of the deep IRAC strip.

  41. 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

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