From theoretical analysis and site testing work for 4 years on Dome A, Antarctica, we can reasonably predict that it is a very good astronomical site, as good as or even better than Dome C and suitable for observations ranging from optical to infrared & sub-mm wavelengths. After the Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR), which was composed of four small fixed telescopes with diameter of 145mm and the three Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) with 500mm entrance diameter, the Kunlun Dark Universe Survey Telescope (KDUST) with diameter of 2.5m is proposed. KDUST will adopt an innovative optical system which can deliver very good image quality over a 2 square degree flat field of view. Some other features are: a fixed focus suitable for different instruments, active optics for miscollimation correction, a lens-prisms that can be used as an atmospheric dispersion corrector or as a very low-dispersion spectrometer when moved in / out of the main optical path without changing the performance of the system, and a compact structure to make easier transportation to Dome A. KDUST will be mounted on a tower with height 15m in order to make a full use of the superb free atmospheric seeing.

SCAR, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, is, like the IAU, a committee of ICSU, the International Council for Science. For over 30 years, SCAR has provided scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty System and made numerous recommendations on a variety of matters. In 2010, Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica was recognized as one of SCAR's five Scientific Research Programs. Broadly stated, the objectives of Astronomy & Astrophysics from Antarctica are to coordinate astronomical activities in Antarctica in a way that ensures the best possible outcomes from international investment in Antarctic astronomy, and maximizes the opportunities for productive interaction with other disciplines. There are four Working Groups, dealing with site testing, Arctic astronomy, science goals, and major new facilities. Membership of the Working Groups is open to any professional working in astronomy or a related field.

Sites on Antarctic plateau have unique atmospheric properties that make them better than any mid-latitude sites as observatory locations. From site testing measurements over 4 years on Dome A carried out by the Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy, we can reasonably predict that Dome A is as good as or even better than Dome C, which has been proved to be the best astronomical site by now, and suitable for high angular resolution observations. Seeing monitoring is necessary for planning large scale ground-based optical astronomical telescopes. In 2012, the 28th Chinese Antarctic Scientific Expedition carried out preliminary daytime seeing monitoring using a Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) placed at a height of 3.5m. The median seeing was found to be 0.8″. This will be the foundation of future research that obtains comprehensive and long-period monitoring of the site's optical parameters.

Among the several methods of classifying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the duration parameter has lead to the canonical classification of GRBs of long and shorts. However, the canonical classification of bursts has recently seen the emergence of a third type of GRB, which is present in a recent large burst sample from the Swift observatory. The high redshifts and the cosmological distances are directly confirmed for long bursts only, while for the short ones there is only indirect evidence for their cosmological origin. Cosmological objects should not only be redshifted in energy but also extended in time because of the expansion of the Universe. Meanwhile, an anticorrelation between the hardness and the duration is found for this subclass in contrast to the short and the long groups (Horvath et al. (2010)). Despite the differences among these three groups, it is not yet clear whether the third group represents a physically different phenomenon. In this scenario, we want to study the bimodal distribution of long bursts, focusing their temporal properties in the source location (burst frame). We have determined a temporal estimator in the cosmological rest-frame from a sample of 60 Swift's GRBs. If GRBs are at cosmological distances, then the burst profiles should be stretched in time due to cosmological time dilation by an amount proportional to the redshift, 1 + z (Chang (2001)). Complementary, we use the hardness ratio between the soft emission (15–50keV) and hard X-ray emission (50–150keV) in order to analyze the bimodal distribution of long bursts in the time-energy plane.

We present long term site testing statistics based on DIMM and GSM data obtained at Dome C, Antarctica. These data have been collected on the bright star Canopus since the end of 2003. We give values of the integrated turbulence parameters in the visible (wavelength 500 nm). The median value we obtained for the seeing are 1.2 arcsec, 2.0 arcsec and 0.8 arcsec at respective elevations of 8m, 3m and 20m above the ground. The isoplanatic angle median value is 4.0 arcsec and the median outer scale is 7.5m. We found that both the seeing and the isoplanatic angle exhibit a strong dependence with the season (the seeing is larger in winter while the isoplanatic angle is smaller).

Despite the absence of artificial light pollution at Antarctic plateau sites such as Dome A, other factors such as airglow, aurorae and extended periods of twilight have the potential to adversely affect optical observations. We present a statistical analysis of the airglow and aurorae at Dome A using spectroscopic data from Nigel, an optical/near-IR spectrometer operating in the 300–850 nm range. The median auroral contribution to the B, V and R photometric bands is found to be 22.9, 23.4 and 23.0 mag arcsec−2 respectively. We are also able to quantify the amount of annual dark time available as a function of wavelength; on average twilight ends when the Sun reaches a zenith distance of 102.6°.

First identified in 2009 as the site with the lowest precipitable water vapour (PWV) and best terahertz transmission on Earth, “Ridge A” is located approximately 150 km south of Dome A, Antarctica. We use three years of data from the Microwave Humidity Sensor (MHS) on the NOAA-18 satellite and recent ground-based measurements from Ridge A to probe the PWV variations and stability over the high Antarctic plateau.

Gravitational lensing is one of most promising tools to probe dark energy and dark matter in our Universe. Lensing by larger-scale structures distorts the shape of background galaxies. For ground-based observations the shape is further distorted by atmospheric turbulence and optical distortions. Many algorithms were proposed to measure the shear signal but the systematic biases are still too large to be acceptable for the larger-sky surveys in the future. I will present our new algorithms for PSF reconstruction and shape measurements based on several sets of basis functions.

Site-testing measurements by the Australian group has already shown that Dome C on the Antarctic plateau is one of the best ground-based astronomical sites. Furthermore, Dome A, the Antarctic Kunlun Station, as the highest point on Antarctic inland plateau, where a Chinese Antarctic scientific expedition team first reached in 2005, is widely predicted to be an even better astronomical site by the international astronomical community. Preliminary site-testing carried out by the Center for Antarctic Astronomy (CAS) also confirms Dome A as a potential astronomical site. Multi-aperture scintillation sensors (MASS) can measure the seeing and isoplantic angle, the turbulence profile, etc., which are very important site-testing parameters that we urgently need. The MASS site testing at Dome A is presented here, and includes the method of processing data and the hardware for the extreme conditions of Dome A, Antarctica.

The Fish-Eye lens MAO-08 is intended for observations of weak extended objects (aurora, twilight and dawn phenomena, stratospheric clouds, etc.) in narrow spectral bands with variable passband filters VARISPEC and in white light. It is valuable for astronomical observation for the target – background problem when we need to estimate the spectral transparence of the atmosphere. Besides having high power this lens can be used for meteor observations. It has been tested during the winter field conditions.

Aspects of the solar corona are still best observed during totality of solar eclipses, and other high-resolution observations of coronal active regions can be observed with radio telescopes by differentiation of occultation observations, as we did with the Jansky Very Large Array for the annular solar eclipse of 2012 May 20 in the US. Totality crossing Antarctica included the eclipse of 2003 November 23, and will next occur on 2021 December 4; annularity crossing Antarctica included the eclipse of 2008 February 7, and will next occur on 2014 April 29. Partial phases as high as 87% coverage were visible and were imaged in Antarctica on 2011 November 25, and in addition to partial phases of the total and annular eclipses listed above, partial phases were visible in Antarctica on 2001 July 2011, 2002 December 4, 2004 April 19, 2006 September 22, 2007 September 11, and 2009 January 26, and will be visible on 2015 September 13, 2016 September 1, 2017 February 26, 2018 February 15, and 2020 December 14. On behalf of the Working Group on Solar Eclipses of the IAU, the poster showed the solar eclipses visible from Antarctica and this article shows a subset (see www.eclipses.info for the full set). A variety of investigations of the Sun and of the response of the terrestrial atmosphere and ionosphere to the abrupt solar cutoff can be carried out at the future eclipses, making the Antarctic observations scientifically useful.

This paper introduces a plan to detect turbulence profiles at Dome A with a Single Star Scidar (SSS), to enhance our understanding of the characteristics of the site. The development of a portable monitor for profiling vertical atmospheric optical turbulence and wind speed is presented. By analyzing the spatial auto and cross-correlation functions of very short exposure images of single star scintillation patterns, the SSS can provide the vertical profiles of turbulence intensity C2n(h) and wind speed V(h). A SSS prototype is already operational at Ali in Tibet which will be improved in order to become fully robotic and adapted to extreme weather conditions that prevail at Dome A in Antarctica.

SONG (Stellar Observations Network Goup) is a low-cost ground based international collaboration aimed at two cutting edge problems in contemporary astrophysics in the time-domain: 1) Direct diagnostics of the internal structure of stars and 2) looking for and studying extra solar planets, possibly in the habitable zone. The general plan is to set up a network of 1m telescopes uniformly distributed in geographic latitude (in both hemispheres). China jointed the collaboration (initiated by Danish astronomers) at the very beginning. In addition to SONG's original plan (http://song.phys.au.dk), the Chinese team proposed a parallel photometry subnet work in the northern hemisphere, namely 50BiN (50cm Binocular Network, previously known as mini-SONG), to enable a large field photometric capability for the network, therefore maximising the potential of the network platform. The network will be able to produce nearly continuous time series observations of a number of selected objects with high resolution spectroscopy (SONG) and accurate photometry (50BiN), and to produce ultra-high accuracy photometry in dense field to look for micro-lensing events caused by planetary systems. This project has great synergy with Chinese Astronomical activities in Antarctica (Dome A), and other similar networks (e.g. LCOGT). The plan and current status of the project are overviewed in this poster.

Dome A on the Antarctic plateau is likely one of the best observing sites on Earth (Saunders et al. 2009). We used the CSTAR telescope (Yuan et al. 2008) to obtain time-series photometry of 104 stars with i>14.5 mag during 128 days of the 2008 Antarctic winter season (Wang et al. 2011). During the 2010 season we observed 2 × 104 stars with i>15 mag for 183 days (Wang et al. 2012). We detected a total of 262 variables, a 6 × increase relative to previous surveys of the same area and depth carried out from temperate sites (Pojmanski 2004). Our observations show that high-precision, long-term photometry is possible from Antarctica and that astronomically useful data can be obtained during 80% of the winter season.

The total electron content (TEC) is an important parameters in the Earth's ionosphere, related to various space weather and solar activities. However, understanding of the complex ionospheric environments is still a challenge due to the lack of direct observations, particularly in the polar areas, e.g., Antarctica. Now the Global Positioning System (GPS) can be used to retrieve total electron content (TEC) from dual-frequency observations. The continuous GPS observations in Antarctica provide a good opportunity to investigate ionospheric climatology. In this paper, the long-term variations and fluctuations of TEC over Antarctica are investigated from CODE global ionospheric maps (GIM) with a resolution of 2.5°×5° every two hours since 1998. The analysis shows significant seasonal and secular variations in the GPS TEC. Furthermore, the effects of TEC fluctuations are discussed.

The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has measured a non-zero value for the neutrino mixing angle θ13 with a significance of 7.7 standard deviations. Antineutrinos from six 2.9 GWth reactors were detected in six antineutrino detectors deployed in two near and one far underground experimental halls. With a 116.8 kton-GWth-day live-time exposure in 139 days, 28,909 (205,308) electron-antineutrino candidates were detected at the far hall (near hall). The ratio of the observed to expected number of antineutrinos at the far hall is R = 0.944 ± 0.007 ± 0.003 (syst). A rate-only analysis finds sin22θ13 = 0.089 ± 0.010 (stat) ± 0.005 (syst) in a three-neutrino framework.

The first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3-1), a 50/68cm Schmidt-like equatorial-mount telescope, is the first trackable Chinese telescope operating on the Antarctic plateau. It was installed at Dome A (80°22′, 77°21′E, 4,093m), the highest place on the Antarctic plateau, in 2012. The telescope is unmanned during night-time operations through the Austral winter. The telescope optics and mechanics, as well as the motors and position sensors, are exposed to a harsh environment. The mechanics is enclosed with a foldable tent-like dome to prevent snow, diamond dust and ice. While the control cabinet containing drive boxes, circuit board boxes, power converters and the Telescope Control Computer (TCC) is located inside the warm instrumental module. In about 15 weeks remote testing and commissioning, from January 24 when the expedition team left there to May 8, when the communication failed, we obtained images with the best FWHM of less than 2″. We also recorded the telescope movement performance and fine-tuned the dynamic properties of the telescope control system. Some experiences and lessons will be disscussed in this paper.

Submillimeter observations through the atmosphere can be affected by the complex spectroscopic features of the air. Calibration of astronomical observations in these frequencies requires proper modelling of the atmosphere. We analyzed sky observations from altitudes around 500 and 200 hPa respectively and found deficiencies in atmospheric models. Further research to improve the models are expected to help in future submillimeter observations.

Targeting quasar candidates is always an important task for large spectroscopic sky survey projects. Astronomers never give up thinking out effective approaches to separate quasars from stars. The previous methods on this issue almost belong to supervised methods or color-color cut. In this work, we compare the performance of a supervised method – Support Vector Machine (SVM)– with that of an unsupervised method one-class SVM. The performance of SVM is better than that of one-class SVM. But one-class SVM is an unsupervised algorithm which is helpful to recognize rare or mysterious objects. Combining supervised methods with unsupervised methods is effective to improve the performance of a single classifier.