Summary
Snodar is a 5 kHz monostatic acoustic radar designed to measure the atmospheric turbulence within the first 200 m of the atmosphere with a vertical resolution of 1 m. An in situ calibration target is used to give absolute intensity calibration. The primary motivation for building Snodar is to quantify the site conditions for a future astronomical observatory in Antarctica. Two Snodar instruments are operating at Dome A, Antarctica, during 2009 as part of the completely robotic “PLATO” facility. The instruments are separated by 20 m and sample from 8 m to 200 m with a resolution of 1 m allowing the spatial and temporal characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer to be investigated. We present here the acoustic design of Snodar and example data demonstrating the performance of the instrument.