Since 1980, South Pole base was known to be a very good site for
Heliosismology(Fossat,1980) and for millimetric astronomy (Puget,1984).
Later the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica(CARA), univ.
of Chicago-Yerkes, promoted the installation of many types of telescopes
in various wavelengths:
Project		Range		Diameter(m)
ASTRO		Sub-mm		1.7
SPIREX		IR		0.6
AMANDA		Neutrino	km
COBRA		mm-CBA		2

At this time, among all the scientific projects developed at South Pole
50% are devoted to Astronomy. Why?

High Altitude: Most of the antarctic continent is at high elevation h>3000m
the highest point being at Dome A(4200m).
Very low precipitation: Of the order of few cm.
Extremely cold:From -30C in summer(day) to -90C in winter(night)
Very dry:Water vapor content: From 0.1mm to 1mm.
Continuous observations:It is possible to observe the same object without
interruption during many days(summer) or nights(winter).
This set of known properties allow the opening of many windows from the
near IR to sub-mm, which are very attractive in cosmology.

But nothing was known about seeing, to achieve high angular resolution
imaging. We, at Departement d'Astrophysique de Nice, CARA and JACARA
(Joint Australian CARA) have been envolved in seeing site testing at
South Pole during the last two winters. From the processing of about
20 balloons, launched during the polar night, most of the image degradation
come from the first hectometer, which is dominated by the catabatic winds.
The rest of the atmosphere is responsible of a mean 0.4 arc-sec seeing.

There is a French-Italian project to install a permanent base at Dome C,
3300m, not only for astronomical purposes but also glaciology. In
collaboration with Roma Univ. we began a site testing in December 95.
Being on top of a high plateau, we expect to avoid catabatic disturbances
and thus to reach seeing as good as 0.4" at ground level.


Jean Vernin