Related papers: Nulling interferometry: performance comparison bet…
Nulling interferometry, a powerful technique for high-resolution imaging of the close neighbourhood of bright astrophysical objets, is currently considered for future space missions such as Darwin or the Terrestrial Planet Finder…
Characterising the circumstellar dust around nearby main sequence stars is a necessary step in understanding the planetary formation process and is crucial for future life-finding space missions such as ESA's Darwin or NASA's Terrestrial…
Earth-sized planets around nearby stars are being detected for the first time by ground-based radial velocity and space-based transit surveys. This milestone is opening the path towards the definition of missions able to directly detect the…
The low infrared background and high atmospheric transparency are the principal advantages of Antarctic Plateau sites for astronomy. However, the poor seeing (between one and three arcseconds) negates much of the sensitivity improvements…
Seeing, the angular size of stellar images blurred by atmospheric turbulence, is a critical parameter used to assess the quality of astronomical sites. Median values at the best mid-latitude sites are generally in the range of…
Recent site testing (see: http://www-luan.unice.fr/Concordiastro/indexantartic.html) has shown that Dome C in Antarctica might have a high potential for stellar interferometry if some solutions related to the surface atmospheric layer are…
We present numerical simulations for a possible synthesis imaging mode of the Space Interferometer Mission (SIM). We summarize the general techniques that SIM offers to perform imaging of high surface brightness sources, and discuss their…
This paper analyses 3.5 years of site testing data obtained at Dome C, Antarctica, based on measurements obtained with three DIMMs located at three different elevations. Basic statistics of the seeing and the isoplanatic angle are given, as…
Preliminary site testing datasets suggest that Dome C in Antarctica is one of the best sites on Earth for astronomical observations in the 200 to 500 micron regime, i.e. for far-infrared (FIR) and submillimetre (submm) astronomy. We present…
We present low-resolution turbulence profiles of the atmosphere above Dome C, Antarctica, measured with the MASS instrument during 25 nights in March-May 2004. Except for the lowest layer, Dome C has significantly less turbulence than Cerro…
The internal antarctic plateau revealed in the last years to be a site with interesting potentialities for the astronomical applications due to the extreme dryness and low temperatures, the typical high altitude of the plateau, the weak…
Due to the recent interest shown by astronomers towards the Antarctic Plateau as a potential site for large astronomical facilities, we assisted in the last years to a strengthening of site testing activities in this region, particularly at…
Atmospheric emission is a dominant source of disturbance in ground-based astronomy at mm wavelengths. The Antarctic plateau is recognized to be an ideal site for mm and sub-mm observations, and the French/Italian base of Dome C is among the…
The detection and atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable, temperate terrestrial exoplanets using a space-based mid-infrared nulling interferometer is a major goal of contemporary astrophysics. A central part of the analysis…
These last years ground-based astronomy has been looking towards Antarctica, especially its summits and the internal continental plateau where the optical turbulence (OT) appears to be confined in a shallow layer close to the surface.…
Mesoscale model such as Meso-Nh have proven to be highly reliable in reproducing 3D maps of optical turbulence (see Refs. 1, 2, 3, 4) above mid-latitude astronomical sites. These last years ground-based astronomy has been looking towards…
Aims: Optical interferometry from space for the purpose of detecting and characterising exoplanets is seeing a revival, specifically from missions such as the proposed Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). A default assumption since…
Over the past few years a major effort has been put into the exploration of potential sites for the deployment of submillimetre astronomical facilities. Amongst the most important sites are Dome C and Dome A on the Antarctic Plateau, and…
Investigating the dynamical evolution of dust grains in proto-planetary disks is a key issue to understand how planets should form. We identify under which conditions dust settling can be constrained by high angular resolution observations…
(Abridged) Context: In the previous paper in this series, we identified that a pentagonal arrangement of five telescopes, using a kernel-nulling beam combiner, shows notable advantages for some important performance metrics for a…