Project Title

South Pole Telescope (SPT) Operations and Data Products

Summary

Event Number:
A-379-S
NSF / OPP Award 2147371

Program Director:
Dr. Vladimir Papitashvili

ASC POC/Implementer:
Paul Sullivan / Sheryl Seagraves / Leah Street

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. John Carlstrom
jc@astro.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Chicago, Illinois

Location

Supporting Stations: South Pole Station
Research Locations: South Pole Station - Dark Sector Lab (DSL)

Description

This project will conduct measurements of the 14-billion-year-old cosmic microwave background (CMB) with the South Pole Telescope (SPT) to address some of the most basic and compelling questions regarding the origin and composition of the universe. The telescope's siting is ideal for ultra-low-noise imaging surveys of the sky at the millimeter and submillimeter radio wavelengths. This unique geographical location allows SPT to obtain extremely sensitive 24/7 observations of targeted, low-galactic, foreground regions of the sky. The telescope's third-generation SPT-3G receiver has 16,000 detectors configured for polarization-sensitive observations in three millimeter-wave bands. The proposed operations also support SPT's critical role in the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global array of telescopes to image the event horizon around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Field Season Overview

A seven-person team will deploy from the beginning to mid-austral summer. A four-person team (including the 2022 SPT winter-overs) will continue SPT observations during the start of the austral summer and begin training of the new SPT winter-overs. A three-person team arriving during the second half of the season will include the 2022 winter-over science machinist and two people to train the SPT winter-overs on EHT observations. Other taskings will include servicing and maintaining the telescope components and computer systems, upgrading and servicing the computers, and cryogenic maintenance of the SPT and optics cryostats.

Deploying Team Members