Study finds Earth's coldest, driest place

SYDNEY, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Australian and U.S. astronomers looking for the best observatory site in the world have found the coldest, driest and calmest place on Earth in the Antarctic.

The astronomers combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models to assess the many factors affecting astronomy -- cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapor, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence.

The site, known as "Ridge A," is located at an altitude of 13,297 feet on the Antarctic Plateau. No human is thought to have ever been there since it is not only particularly removed, but extremely cold and dry. The study revealed "Ridge A" has an average winter temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit and the atmospheric water content is sometimes less than the thickness of a human hair.

"It's so calm that there's almost no wind or weather there at all," said Will Saunders of the Anglo-Australian Observatory and visiting professor at the University of New South Wales, who led the study.

"The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers," he said. "Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on Earth."

The research is reported in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.