3rd ARENA Conference

The third and final ARENA conference was aimed to review the network working groups achievements in preparation of a roadmap toward the development of an international astronomical observatory at the French-Italian station CONCORDIA at Dome C in the heart of the Antarctic Plateau.

New recent atmospheric observational data and modeling obtained at different stations in the inner Antarctic continent are presented and compared. They confirm the exceptional potential of Antarctica for astronomical observations, in general, none being outstandingly better than the others. CONCORDIA with its five year practice of year round operations thus appears to be one of the most promising place for European astronomers to engage in the achievement of a meso-scale astronomical facility in the mid term and to prospect for future giant instruments such as optical/IR or submillimetric wave interferometric arrays.

The science cases already discussed in the previous volumes of this series (Vols. 25 and 33) were refined and updated consistently with the conclusions of ASTRONET (a European ERANET aimed to set up a more general roadmap for ground based astronomy in the next decades). Several instrumental projects at different stages of their studies from conceptual design to phase.