Radio Telescopes and Interferometers in the World

Home , Green Bank Telescope, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Lovell Telescope

澤田-佐藤聡子 사와다-사토우 사토코 Satoko SAWADA-SATOH (山口大学, 야마구치대학, Yamaguchi University)

Second Asian Radio Astronomy School Aug 18-22, 2008 at ASIAA, Taipei World Radio Telescope Tour ! (...but not in East Asia)

1. Big Antenna 2. Interferometry 3. VLBI

Big Antenna ~ Towards higher sensitivity

Arecibo (National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center )

• The largest single aperture ~ 73000 m2 • Diameter : 305 m • Location : Puerto Rico • Band : 50 MHz to 10 GHz • Maximum Angular Resolution : 30''

RATAN-600 (Special Astrophysics Observatory) • The world's largest radio telescope • 576 meter diameter of circular antenna with tilt-able curved and flat reflectors • Location : Zelenchukskaya, Russia • Aperture : ~15000 m2 • Band : 600 MHz to 30 GHz • Maximum Angular Resolution : 2''

Effelsberg Telescope (Max Planck Institut) • The 100-m diameter alt-azimuth mounted antenna • The largest fully steerable radio telescope for 30 years • Location : Effelsberg, near Bonn, Germany • Aperture : 7854 m2 • Band : 800 MHz to 96 GHz • Maximum Angular Resolution : 60''

Green Bank Telescope (NRAO) • Parabolic off axis reflector • The world's largest fully steerable radio telescope – 100 m x 110 m diameter • Location : Green Bank, West Virginia, USA • Band : 300 MHz to 50 GHz • Maximum Angular Resolution : 120''

Lovell Telescope (Jodrell Bank Observatory) • A 76-m alt-azimuth mounted parabolic dish antenna • Location : Cheshire, in the north-west of England • Band : Up to ~ 5 GHz • Maximum Angular Resolution : 160''

Tidbinbilla (Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex) • The largest steerable radio telescope in the southern hemisphere (70-m diameter) • a part of Deep Space Network run by NASA's Jet Propulsin Laboratory (JPL) • Location : near canberra, Australia • Band : 1.6 to 24 GHz • Maximum Angular Resolution : 40 ''

Interferometry ~ to get higher angular resolution

VLA (NRAO)

• Consist of twenty seven 25-m diameter antennas • Location : New Mexico, USA • Band : 74 MHz to 50 GHz • Baseline : up to 36 km • Angular Resolution : 0.04''

GMRT (National Centre for Radio Astrophysics) • The world's largest array of radio telescopes at meter wavelengths. • Consist of thirty 45-m antennas • Location : Pune, India • Band : 50 to 1500 MHz • Angular Resolution : up to 1.6''

WSRT (ASTRON) • Consist of fourteen 25-m antennas • Location : Westerbork, Netherlands • Band : 120 MHz to 8.3 GHz • Baseline : 2.7 km East-West linear array • Angular Resolution : 2.8 ''

ATCA (Australia Telescope National Facility)

• Consist of six 22-m diameter antennas • Currently, the only one interferometer in south hemisphere • Location : Narrabri, Australia • Bands : 1.2 to 106 Ghz – up to millimeter wave length • Baseline : up to 6 km • Angular Resolution : up to 0.5''

PdBI (IRAM) • consist of six 15-m diameter antennas • Millimeter Interferometer • Location : Plateau de Bure, at 2550 m altitude in the French Alps • Band : 80 to 267 Ghz • Baseline : up to 730 m • Angular Resolution : up to 0.35''

SMA (SAO/ASIAA) • consist of eight 6-m antennas • The first submilimeter interferometer • Location : Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA • Band : 186 to 696 Ghz • Baseline : up to 508 m • Angular Resolution : up to 0.15''

VLBI ~ Challenge to the ultimate angular resolution

VLBA (NRAO) • ten 25-m antennas in US territories, span ~8600 km • the largest dedicated full-time VLBI array • Angular Resolution : up to 72 micro arcsec • Correlator : Array Operations Center at Socorro, US – singal is recorded in tapes at each antenna – the tapes are shipped to the correlator • Band : 0.3 to 90 Ghz

EVN (Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe; JIVE) • operate 18 individual antennas spread throughout Europe and beyond (~ 10000 km) • Angular Resolution : up to 0.15 mas • Correlator : The EVN Mark IV at JIVE as the default • Band : 0.3 to 43 Ghz

LBA (Australia Telescope National Facility) • 7 sites in Australia, 1 site in South Africa • The only one VLBI facility in south hemisphere • Correlator : The DiFX software correlator – Data is recorded on disks – Correlated on the DiFX software correlator • Baseline : up to ~9800 km • Band : 1.4 to 22 GHz

You can access

• Most of those antennas and interferometories open their observing time to scientists world wide. • Some antennas or interferometories open parcially. • All of them have their websites to show their documentations and users' guides.