Oxford Experimental Radio/mm Cosmology

• Back to the main Clover page
• General introduction to Clover and its science
• The Clover instrument
• Photos of the construction of Clover

The Clover Site

Clover will be sited high in the Chilean Andes on the Llano de Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert. The high altitude (5080 m) places it above nearly half the atmosphere and most of the water vapour. It is also a very dry site which makes it an excellent excellent site for millimetre and sub-millimetre astronomy. Water vapour absorbs and attenuates submillimetre radiation and thus a dry site is required for this type of short-wavelength radio astronomy. The Chajnantor Plateau is already home to several millimetre and submillimetre experiments (e.g. ALMA CBI, ACT, QUIET, NANTEN, ASTE, APEX).

The Llano de Chajnantor from Cerro Toco

The location of the CLOVER site in South America