Base temperature at the site is assumed to be 233 K. Although the surface temperature at the South Pole is 210 K, the existence of an inversion layer over the first several hundred meters of the atmosphere means that a truer reflection of the air temperature is at the inversion boundary layer where the temperature turns over, which is approximately 20 K warmer. Zenith angle of pointing is 45 degrees (airmass = 1.414). The plots contain data for the 75%, 50%, and 25% quartiles for precipitable water vapor, as well as the 10% value. These are, respectively, 0.32 mm [dashed line], 0.25 mm [solid line], 0.19 mm [dashed line], and 0.14 mm [dotted line]. Finally there is also a dotted overplot for typical Mauna Kea conditions with a 1.00 mm precipitable water vapor level.
Competing astronomical sites in the Atacama Desert, Chile and Mauna Kea have correspondingly higher precipitable water vapor levels; pressure-broadened water vapor line wings will have the most impact in the submillimeter windows. See some comparison transmission plots to see how Atacama and Mauna Kea match up with the South Pole. (Also available is an Adobe Illustrator format summary chart showing the different kinds of astrophysics that can be done at the South Pole.)
Also overplotted for the sky thermal emission graphs are Planck emission curves for a 233 K blackbody at emissivities of 100% [long dashed line], 10% [dashed line], and 1% [dotted line], and 5% telescope emissivity plots with a South Pole temperature of 210 K and a Mauna Kea temperature of 275 K [thick solid lines].
The format of the gzipped file names is "cara(l)_[a-j][t,o,e].ps.gz". All medium resolution files (R=1000) begin with the suffix "cara_" while the low resolution plots (R=100) begin with the suffix "caral_"; the first letter following it specifies a wavelength range (see below), and the second letter specifies a transmissivity plot ("t"), an optical depth plot ("o"), or a thermal emission plot ("e").
(There are also three gzipped files with the filename format "cara_ij[t,o,e].ps.gz". These are medium resolution files [R=1000], are calculated at a zenith angle of 45 degrees, and everything else about the plots are the same as described above, except for the wavelength range of 256-1024 microns.)
Burova, L. P., V. D. Gromov, N. I. Lukianchikova, and G. B. Sholomitskii, Low humidity and submillimeter transparency above the Vostok Antarctic station, Sov. Astron. Lett., 12, 339-341, 1986.
Chamberlin, R. A., and J. Bally, The 225-GHz opacity of the South Pole sky derived from continual radiometric measurements of the sky brightness temperature, Appl. Opt., 33, 1095-1099, 1994.
Chamberlin, R. A., and J. Bally, The observed relationship between the South Pole 225-GHz atmospheric opacity and water vapor column density, Int. J. Infrared Millimeter Waves, in press, 1996.
Harper, D. A., Infrared astronomy in Antarctica, in Astrophysics in Antarctica, AIP Conference Proceedings 198, edited by D. J. Mullan, M. A. Pomerantz, and T. Stanev, pp. 123-129, Am. Inst. of Phys., New York, 1989.
Wavelength Index Range (microns):
a 1.-2.
a1 1.-1.5
a2 1.5-2.
b 2.-4.
b1 2.-3.
b2 3.-4.
c 4.-8.
d 8.-16.
e 16.-32.
f 32.-64.
g 64.-128.
h 128.-256.
i 256.-512.
j 512.-1024.
Medium Resolution (R=1000)
Transmissivity Plots: -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 55069 May 23 21:06 cara_a1t.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 40101 May 23 21:06 cara_a2t.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 56135 May 23 21:06 cara_b1t.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 39140 May 23 21:06 cara_b2t.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 71175 May 23 21:07 cara_ct.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 68093 May 23 21:07 cara_dt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 70498 May 23 21:08 cara_et.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 65215 May 23 21:08 cara_ft.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 64687 May 23 21:09 cara_gt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 67077 May 23 21:09 cara_ht.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 67970 May 23 21:11 cara_it.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 71245 May 23 21:13 cara_jt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 67046 Jun 15 16:34 cara_ijt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] Figure caption: Sky transmissivity for the South Pole calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also overplotted are typical conditions at Mauna Kea with a 1.00 mm precipitable water vapor level (dotted line). Optical Depth Plots: -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 58656 May 23 20:38 cara_a1o.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 40876 May 23 20:40 cara_a2o.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 58298 May 23 20:42 cara_b1o.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 39556 May 23 20:43 cara_b2o.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 71563 May 23 20:46 cara_co.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 69660 May 23 20:48 cara_do.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 72719 May 23 20:49 cara_eo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 72942 May 23 20:51 cara_fo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 74250 May 23 20:53 cara_go.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 72434 May 23 21:10 cara_ho.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 70350 May 23 21:12 cara_io.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 72153 May 23 21:14 cara_jo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 69128 Jun 15 16:36 cara_ijo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] Figure caption: Sky optical depth for the South Pole calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also overplotted are typical conditions at Mauna Kea with a 1.00 mm precipitable water vapor level (dotted line). Sky Thermal Emission Plots: -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 72189 May 23 20:40 cara_a1e.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 55231 May 23 20:41 cara_a2e.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 71454 May 23 20:43 cara_b1e.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 54533 May 23 20:44 cara_b2e.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 89215 May 23 20:46 cara_ce.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 90679 May 23 20:49 cara_de.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 88067 May 23 20:50 cara_ee.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 71747 May 23 20:52 cara_fe.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 69798 May 23 20:54 cara_ge.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 70221 May 23 21:10 cara_he.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 77288 May 23 21:13 cara_ie.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 86607 May 23 21:14 cara_je.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 91878 Jun 15 16:36 cara_ije.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] Figure caption: Sky thermal emission for the South Pole calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also overplotted are typical conditions at Mauna Kea with a 1.00 mm precipitable water vapor level (dotted line); graybody sky emission for the South Pole temperature of 233 K, at emissivities of 100% (long dashed line), 10% (dashed line), and 1% (dotted line); and 5% telescope emission overplots from the South Pole with a surface temperature of 210 K, and from Mauna Kea with a surface temperature of 275 K (thick solid lines).Low Resolution (R=100)
Transmissivity Plots: -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 25169 May 26 18:36 caral_at.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 25772 May 26 18:37 caral_bt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 24960 May 26 18:38 caral_ct.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 24089 May 26 18:39 caral_dt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 24247 May 26 18:40 caral_et.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 25328 May 26 18:43 caral_ft.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 28130 May 26 18:43 caral_gt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 28652 May 26 18:44 caral_ht.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 26194 May 26 18:45 caral_it.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 29004 May 26 18:46 caral_jt.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] Figure caption: Sky transmissivity for the South Pole calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=100 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also overplotted are typical conditions at Mauna Kea with a 1.00 mm precipitable water vapor level (dotted line). Optical Depth Plots: -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 23936 May 26 18:37 caral_ao.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 26505 May 26 18:37 caral_bo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 26179 May 26 18:39 caral_co.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 23515 May 26 18:39 caral_do.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 26144 May 26 18:41 caral_eo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 27390 May 26 18:43 caral_fo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 29190 May 26 18:43 caral_go.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 26599 May 26 18:45 caral_ho.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 25937 May 26 18:46 caral_io.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 30103 May 26 18:46 caral_jo.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] Figure caption: Sky optical depth for the South Pole calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=100 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also overplotted are typical conditions at Mauna Kea with a 1.00 mm precipitable water vapor level (dotted line). Sky Thermal Emission Plots: -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 46200 May 28 11:16 caral_ae.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 47595 May 26 18:37 caral_be.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 43590 May 26 18:39 caral_ce.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 45523 May 26 18:40 caral_de.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 41908 May 26 18:41 caral_ee.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 32062 May 26 18:43 caral_fe.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 33127 May 26 18:44 caral_ge.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 33623 May 26 18:45 caral_he.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 37563 May 26 18:46 caral_ie.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 45802 May 26 18:47 caral_je.ps.gz [Zenith Angle = 45] Figure caption: Sky thermal emission for the South Pole calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=100 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also overplotted are typical conditions at Mauna Kea with a 1.00 mm precipitable water vapor level (dotted line); graybody sky emission for the South Pole temperature of 233 K, at emissivities of 100% (long dashed line), 10% (dashed line), and 1% (dotted line); and 5% telescope emission overplots from the South Pole with a surface temperature of 210 K, and from Mauna Kea with a surface temperature of 275 K (thick solid lines).Miscellaneous Plots:
-rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 70260 Jun 15 17:18 cara_150_850t.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 75141 Jun 15 17:18 cara_150_850o.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 99027 Jun 15 17:19 cara_150_850e.ps.gz Figure caption: Transmissivity, optical depth, and thermal sky emission plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees, and similar to the medium resolution plots above in all respects except for the range of 150-850 microns. -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 65953 Jun 15 17:17 cara_200_800t.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 72732 Jun 15 17:17 cara_200_800o.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 92073 Jun 15 17:17 cara_200_800e.ps.gz Figure caption: Transmissivity, optical depth, and thermal sky emission plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees, and similar to the medium resolution plots above in all respects except for the range of 200-800 microns. -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 40656 Jun 15 17:28 cara_16_64t.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 45735 Jun 15 17:29 cara_16_64o.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 45223 Jun 15 17:30 cara_16_64e.ps.gz Figure caption: Transmissivity, optical depth, and thermal sky emission plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees, for 25% quartile PWVs at the South Pole (0.19 mm) and Mauna Kea (1.00 mm) for the wavelength range 16-64 microns. -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 39477 Jun 15 17:31 cara_64_256t.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 41427 Jun 15 17:32 cara_64_256o.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 39199 Jun 15 17:32 cara_64_256e.ps.gz Figure caption: Transmissivity, optical depth, and thermal sky emission plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees, for 25% quartile PWVs at the South Pole (0.19 mm) and Mauna Kea (1.00 mm) for the wavelength range 64-256 microns.CARA 1997 Proposal Plots:
-rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 63130 Mar 26 10:58 cara_97_at.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 62514 Mar 26 10:59 cara_97_bt.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 60558 Mar 26 11:00 cara_97_ct.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 58826 Mar 26 11:02 cara_97_dt.ps.gz Figure caption: Transmissivity plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees at the South Pole. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). The wavelength ranges are 3--6 microns, 6--12 microns, 12--24 microns, and 24--48 microns. -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 67113 Mar 26 10:59 cara_97_ae.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 72291 Mar 26 11:00 cara_97_be.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 68613 Mar 26 11:01 cara_97_ce.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun 66449 Mar 26 11:02 cara_97_de.ps.gz Figure caption: Sky thermal emission plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees at the South Pole. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). The wavelength ranges are 3--6 microns, 6--12 microns, 12--24 microns, and 24--48 microns. -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun casa 64575 May 16 20:28 cara97sp_at1.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun casa 64983 May 16 20:38 cara97sp_at2.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun casa 65256 May 16 20:38 cara97sp_at3.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun casa 65624 May 16 20:37 cara97sp_at4.ps.gz Figure caption: Transmissivity plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees at the South Pole. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also plotted is the 25% quartile water vapor (at 0.68 mm) value for the Atacama Desert (long dashed line). The numbers "1", "2", "3", and "4" in the names of the PostScript figure files represent the different aspect ratios plotted: 1:2.7, 1:2.3, 1:2.0, and 1:1.8. -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun casa 65404 May 28 16:16 cara97sp_at_a.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 kachun casa 71322 May 28 16:17 cara97sp_at_b.ps.gz Figure caption: Transmissivity plots calculated with the AT code at a resolution of R=1000 and for a zenith angle of 45 degrees at the South Pole. Lines are for the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% quartile levels of precipitable water vapor, respectively at 0.14 mm (dotted line), 0.19 mm (dashed line), 0.25 mm (solid line), and 0.32 mm (dashed line). Also plotted is the 25% quartile water vapor (at 0.68 mm) value for the Atacama Desert (solid line). The two wavelength ranges plotted are 150-550 microns (cara97sp_at_a.ps.gz) and 550-950 microns (cara97sp_at_b.ps.gz).