HEAT at the dryest, calmest, coldest place on Earth

Every Sunday there is a science lecture at the South Pole. Projects and experiments introduce their work to the South Pole community. Station staff and scientists together listen to the latest work at the Pole and in Antarctica. Yesterday, we heard about HEAT, a new THz astronomy experiment to be deployed at on Ridge A, near Dome A. The goal of the experiment is to observe the Milky way in THz light and learn about gas and cloud formations. This observation requires the dryest and  thinnest atmosphere possible. Water in the atmosphere will absorb the THz radiation and make the measurement impossible. Even the mountains of Hawaii, the Chilean desert, and the South Pole (!) are still too humid for this experiment.

The location of choice is Ridge A, near Dome A. The highest location on the Antarctic plateau. There is no  station. It is one of the coldest and most hostile places on the continent. The Chinese are planning to build a telescope near Dome A. The average temperatures at this place are about -60 deg C. At the Pole it is only -48 deg C. The experiment  is deployed in day trips and then runs remotely for a year at a time. During the winter data is transferred via an Irridium Satellite link. The data transfer per day is a maximum 10MB!
This makes the 9hr-per-day broadband connection at the Pole seem awesome in comparison.

For more information on Ridge A see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_A
and http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/