Pre-HEAT: submillimeter site testing and astronomical spectra from Dome A, Antarctica
2008
Pre-HEAT is a 20 cm aperture submillimeter-wave telescope with a 660 GHz (450 micron) Schottky diode heterodyne
receiver and digital FFT spectrometer for the Plateau Observatory (PLATO) developed by the University of New South
Wales. In January 2008 it was deployed to Dome A, the summit of the Antarctic plateau, as part of a scientific traverse
led by the Polar Research Institute of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dome A may be one of the best sites
in the world for ground based Terahertz astronomy, based on the exceptionally cold, dry and stable conditions which
prevail there. Pre-HEAT is measuring the 450 micron sky opacity at Dome A and mapping the Galactic Plane in the
13 CO J=6-5 line, constituting the first submillimeter measurements from Dome A. It is field-testing many of the key
technologies for its namesake -- a successor mission called HEAT: the High Elevation Antarctic Terahertz telescope.
Exciting prospects for submillimeter astronomy from Dome A and the status of Pre-HEAT will be presented.
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