PLATO-R is an autonomous, robotic observatory that can be deployed anywhere on the Antarctic plateau by Twin Otter
aircraft. It provides heat, data acquisition, communications, and up to 1kW of electric power to support astronomical and
other experiments throughout the year. PLATO-R was deployed in 2012 January to Ridge A, believed to be the site with
the lowest precipitable water vapour (and hence the best atmospheric transmission at terahertz frequencies) on earth.1-4
PLATO-R improves upon previous PLATO designs that were built into ten-foot shipping containers by being much smaller
and lighter, allowing it to be field-deployable within 2-3 days by a crew of four.
Snodar is a high resolution acoustic radar designed specifically for profiling the atmospheric boundary layer on the high
Antarctic plateau. Snodar profiles the atmospheric temperature structure function constant to a vertical resolution of 1 m
or better with a minimum sample height of 8 m. The maximum sampling height is dependent on atmospheric conditions
but is typically at least 100 m. Snodar uses a unique in-situ intensity calibration method that allows the instrument to be
autonomously recalibrated throughout the year. The instrument is initially intensity calibrated against tower-mounted
differential microthermal sensors. A calibration sphere is located in the near-field of the antenna to provide a fixed echo
of known intensity, allowing the instrument to be continuously re-calibrated once deployed. This allows snow
accumulation, transducer wear and system changes due to temperature to be monitored. Year-round power and
communications are provided by the PLATO facility. This allows processed data to be downloaded every 6 hours while
raw data is stored on-site for collection the following summer. Over 4 million processed samples have been downloaded
through PLATO to date. We present signal attenuation from accumulation of snow and ice on Snodar's parabolic
reflector during the 2009 at Dome A.
PLATO is a self-contained robotic observatory built into two 10-foot shipping containers. It has been successfully
deployed at Dome A on the Antarctic plateau since January 2008, and has accumulated over 730 days of
uptime at the time of writing. PLATO provides 0.5{1kW of continuous electrical power for a year from diesel
engines running on Jet-A1, supplemented during the summertime with solar panels. One of the 10-foot shipping
containers houses the power system and fuel, the other provides a warm environment for instruments. Two
Iridium satellite modems allow 45 MB/day of data to be transferred across the internet.
Future enhancements to PLATO, currently in development, include a more modular design, using lithium
iron-phosphate batteries, higher power output, and a light-weight low-power version for eld deployment from a
Twin Otter aircraft.
Technologies used in PLATO include a CAN (Controller Area Network) bus, high-reliability PC/104 com-
puters, ultracapacitors for starting the engines, and fault-tolerant redundant design.
Over a decade of site testing in Antarctica has shown that both South Pole and Dome C are exceptional sites for
astronomy, with certain atmospheric conditions superior to those at existing mid-latitude sites. However, the highest
point on the Antarctic plateau, Dome A, is expected to experience colder atmospheric temperatures, lower wind speeds,
and a turbulent boundary layer that is confined closer to the ground. The Polar Research Institute of China, who were the
first to visit the Dome A site in January 2005, plan to establish a permanently manned station there within the next
decade. As part of this process they conducted a second expedition to Dome A, arriving via overland traverse in January
2008. This traverse involved the delivery and installation of the PLATeau Observatory (PLATO). PLATO is an
automated self-powered astrophysical site testing observatory, developed by the University of New South Wales. A
number of international institutions have contributed site testing instruments measuring turbulence, optical sky
background, and sub-millimetre transparency. In addition, a set of science instruments are providing wide-field high time
resolution optical photometry and terahertz imaging of the Galaxy. We present here an overview of the PLATO system
design and instrumentation suite.
KEYWORDS: Acoustics, Calibration, Scattering, Radar, Information operations, Data acquisition, Optical spheres, Transducers, Atmospheric modeling, Domes
The height of the atmospheric boundary layer on the Antarctic plateau is of particular importance to designers of optical
telescopes for Antarctica. Snodar was developed at the University of New South Wales to measure the height of the
atmospheric boundary layer at Dome A and Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. Snodar, or Surface layer Non-Doppler
Acoustic Radar, is a true monostatic high-frequency acoustic radar (SODAR) operating between 5 kHz and 15 kHz. As
the height of the boundary layer at Dome C is expected to be less then 30 m, and unknown at Dome A, Snodar was
designed to have a minimum sampling height of 5 m with a vertical resolution of 1 m or better. Snodar uses a PC/104
computer to perform signal processing in real time, and a USB sound card for low-latency analog IO. Snodar was
designed to run autonomously storing data on USB flash disks for retrieval the following summer, while uploading of
data acquisition scripts and spot checking of data is possible via Iridium satellite through UNSW's PLATO facility.
Snodar also incorporates a unique in-situ calibration sphere. We present details of the design and results from testing of
Snodar.
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