## Publication: Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy

 dc.contributor.author Travouillon, Tony en_US dc.contributor.author Ashley, Michael en_US dc.contributor.author Burton, Michael en_US dc.contributor.author Storey, John en_US dc.contributor.author Loewenstein, R en_US dc.date.accessioned 2021-11-25T13:06:20Z dc.date.available 2021-11-25T13:06:20Z dc.date.issued 2003 en_US dc.description.abstract To investigate the low-atmosphere turbulence at the South Pole, we have measured, using a SODAR, the temperature fluctuation constant ( CT2) during winter, as a function of altitude up to 890 m. We found that the turbulence was on average concentrated inside a boundary layer sitting below 270 m. While at the peak of winter the turbulence was stable and clearly bounded, during other seasons there was a more complex turbulence profile which extended to higher altitudes. We found that this behaviour could be explained by the horizontal wind speed conditions whose altitude profile closely matched the turbulence profile. We also observed the presence of a vertical wind velocity change of direction at an altitude range corresponding to the turbulent region. The turbulence gives rise to an average seeing of $1.73^{\prime\prime}$, which compares poorly with the best astronomy sites. The location of the turbulence, however, means that the seeing quickly decreases above the boundary layer (dropping to $0.37^{\prime\prime}$ above 300 m). We also have recorded the largest isoplanatic angle ( $\theta_{\rm AO}=3.3^{\prime\prime}$) and the longest coherence time ( $\tau_{\rm AO}=2.9$ ms) of any ground-based site. en_US dc.identifier.issn 0004-6361 en_US dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/39137 dc.language English dc.language.iso EN en_US dc.rights CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 en_US dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ en_US dc.source Legacy MARC en_US dc.title Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy en_US dc.type Journal Article en dcterms.accessRights metadata only access dspace.entity.type Publication en_US unsw.accessRights.uri http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_14cb unsw.identifier.doiPublisher http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021814 en_US unsw.relation.faculty Science unsw.relation.ispartofjournal Astronomy & Astrophysics en_US unsw.relation.ispartofpagefrompageto 1163-1172 en_US unsw.relation.ispartofvolume 400 en_US unsw.relation.originalPublicationAffiliation Travouillon, Tony, Physics, Faculty of Science, UNSW en_US unsw.relation.originalPublicationAffiliation Ashley, Michael, Physics, Faculty of Science, UNSW en_US unsw.relation.originalPublicationAffiliation Burton, Michael, Physics, Faculty of Science, UNSW en_US unsw.relation.originalPublicationAffiliation Storey, John, Physics, Faculty of Science, UNSW en_US unsw.relation.originalPublicationAffiliation Loewenstein, R en_US unsw.relation.school School of Physics *