Dome A, Antarctica: Prospectives for terahertz astronomy from the ground

Over a decade of site testing and operation of submillimeter telescopes has sh own that the high Antarctic Plateau (South Pole) and Chilean Atacama desert (Chajnantor) are e xceptional gr ound-based site s for submillimeter and terahertz astronomy. The highest sites at both locations (Dome A and the Ch ajnantor and Sairecabur summits) show great promise in yielding even more favorable conditions. To test the condi tions at Do me A, we have deployed Pre-HEAT, a 20 cm aperture submillim eter-wave telescope with a 660 GHz (450 micron) Schottky diode heterodyne re ceiver and digital F FT spe ctrometer for the Plateau Obse rvatory (P LATO) de veloped by the Unive rsity of New South Wales. In January 2008 it was deploy ed to Dome A, the summit of the Antarctic plateau, as part of a scientific tr averse le d by the Polar Re search Institute of China. Dome A may be one o f the best sites in the w orld for ground based Te rahertz astronomy, b ased on t he exceptionally cold, dr y and stable c onditions which pr evail there. Pr e-HEAT is meas uring the 450 micron sky opacity at Dome A and mapping the Galactic Plane in the 13 CO J=6-5 line, constituting the first s ubmillimeter measurements from Dome A. It is field-testing ma ny of th e key technologies for its name sake, a suc cessor mission c alled HEAT: the High Elevation An tarctic Terah ertz teles cope. Exc iting p rospects for submillimeter astronomy f rom Dome A and the status of Pre-HEAT will be presented.