Site Testing the Highest Point on the Antarctic Plateau: the Gattini-Allsky Camera and the DASLE Turbulence Experiment at Dome A

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The SGER award entitled "United States Participation in the 2007 Traverse to Dome A - Optical Sky Brightness and Ground Layer Turbulence Profiling" was awarded in 2007 to the California Institute of Technology to supply site testing instruments to the Australian PLATO autonomous module. The PLATO module was then successfully deployed at Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic Plateau, in the 2007-08 austral summer as part of a science site-testing program jointly developed by the Australia-Chinese team of astronomers. The objectives of this project was to measure atmospheric characteristics of the site and the optical sky brightness, as well as to produce accurate cloud cover statistics and determine the extent of bright auroral activity. The observational program was mostly successful through austral winter of 2008; it is continued through 2009. This proposal seeks funding to return aforementioned instruments back to Caltech. Continued reliance on students provides a broader impact to this proposed research and firmly grounds this effort in its educational mission.