Antarctic Surveying Telescope (AST3-3) NIR camera for the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey (KISS): thermal optimization and system performance

The Antarctic survey telescope (AST 3-3) near infrared(NIR) camera is designed to conduct the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey which will provide a comprehensive exploration of the time varying Universe in the near infrared. It is going to be located at Dome A, on the Antarctic plateau, one of the most unique low background sites at the Kdark band (2.4μm). Carefully designed thermal emission from the telescope and the Kdark camera is very important to realize background limited operation. We setup a scattering and thermal emission model of the whole system to optimize the camera performance. An exposure time calculator was also built to predict system performance.

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