The Simeiz Fundamental Geodynamics Area A. E. Volvach, G. S. Kurbasova Abstract This report gives an overview about the as- 2 Activities during the Past Year and trophysical and geodetic activities at the the fundamen- Current Status tal geodynamics area Simeiz-Katsively. It also summa- rizes the wavelet analysis of the ground and satellite During the past year, the Space Geodesy and Geo- measurements of local insolation on the “Nikita gar- dynamics stations regularly participated in the Inter- den” of Crimea. national Network programs — IVS, the International GPS Service (IGS), and the International Laser Rang- ing Service (ILRS). 1 General Information During the period 2013 January 1 through 2013 December 31, the Simeiz VLBI station participated The Radio Astronomy Laboratory of the Crimean As- in 14 24-hour geodetic sessions. Simeiz regularly trophysical Observatory with its 22-m radio telescope participated in the EUROPE and T2 series of geodetic is located near Simeiz, 25 km to the west of Yalta. The sessions. Simeiz geodynamics area consists of the radio tele- scope RT-22, two satellite laser ranging stations, a per- manent GPS receiver, and a sea level gauge. All these components are located within 3 km (Figure 1). 2.1 Multi-Frequency Molecular Line RT-22, the 22-meter radio telescope, which began Observations operations in 1966, is among the five most efficient telescopes in the world. Various observations in the centimeter and millime- Study of the star-forming regions in molecular lines ter wave ranges are being performed with this tele- started in 1978. Two main types of observation are car- scope now and will be performed in the near future. ried out at the radio telescope: First VLBI observations were performed in 1969 on the 1) observations of maser sources (hydroxyl masers, Simeiz (RT-22) to Green Bank (RT-43, USA) intercon- water masers, and SiO masers) at the frequencies of tinental baseline. RT-22 is equipped with radiometers 1.6 GHz, 4.8 GHz, 22 GHz, and 86 GHz. at the 92 cm, 18 cm, 13 cm, 6 cm, 3.5 cm, 2.8 cm, 2.3 2) observations of millimeter molecular emission at the cm, 2.0 cm, 13.5 mm, and 8 mm wavelengths. frequency range from 85 GHz to 115 GHz. The radio telescope is equipped with high-sensitive Radio Astronomy Lab of Crimean Astrophysical Observatory cryogenic receivers with the noise temperatures of: 1) Simeiz Network Station 30 K at 22 GHz; 2) 39 K at 4.8 GHz; 3) 70 K at frequen- cies from 85 GHz to 115 GHz. At the 3 mm wavelength IVS 2013 Annual Report and with a beam width of 40 arcsecs, the effective aper- ture area of the antenna is 100 m2. The spectrum ana- lyzers for line observations are 1) a 128 channel filter 160 Simeiz VLBI Station 161 bank spectrum analyzer with frequency band 12 MHz; tion of the signal data. The local terrestrial signal mea- 2) a digital spectrum analyzer for maser observations surements and data from the signals of the satellite ob- with the frequency band of 4 MHz and the frequency servations were presented in [3], along with the noise resolution of 8 kHz; 3) a 64 channel filter bank spec- found from the statistical analysis of the observations. trum analyzer with a frequency band of 64 MHz. Using the RT-22, a comet was investigated in the OH line at the wavelength of 18 cm. Comets C/2009 3 Future Plans R1 (McNaught) and 17P/Holmes were observed. For comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught), we determined the gas productivity of OH molecules as a function of Our plans for the coming year are the following: to heliocentric distance. The comet-gas productivity put into operation the VLBI Data Acquisition System increases rapidly approaching perihelion [1]. DBBC, to upgrade the laser of the SLR Simeiz-1873 station, and to set up a new GPS station near the Simeiz VLBI station. 2.2 The Testing of the Ground-Based Segment of the Radioastron Mission References at Wavelengths of 1.35 cm. 1. Volvach L.N., Berezhnoi A.A., Volvach A.E. Bulletin of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, 109 (1), pp.71-75, In accordance with the scientific cooperation between 2012. Ukraine and Russia a series of studies for the prepa- 2. Volvach A.E., Kostenko V.I., Larionov M.G., Volvach L.N., ration of the operation of the ground segment of the et al. Bulletin of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, 108 (1), pp.158-162, 2012. “RadioAstron” mission was held. Using the 22-m ra- 3. Kurbasova G.S., Volvach A.E. Bulletin of the Crimean As- dio telescope RT-22 the scientific program of measure- trophysical Observatory, in press, 2014. ments, a substantial part of which is the study of the compact structures in the extragalactic sources, was prepared. For testing of the model of the ground seg- ment of “Radioastron”, RT-22 of Crimean Astrophys- ical Observatory in Simeiz and RT-70 (P-2500) in Ev- patoria jointly conducted groundbased VLBI test ex- periments at 1.35 cm [2]. 2.3 Wavelet Analysis of Ground and Satellite Measurements of Local Insolation [3] presented the possibility of using wavelet analy- sis on the signals from long sequences of local terres- trial and NASA satellite observations of the insolation of the Center of HydroMeteorology (CHM) “Nikita Garden” (latitude 44.5, longitude 34.2 degrees). The choice of the method, the type of wavelets, and their parameters for analysis were found. Then the wavelet analysis was applied to the signals to determine and remove the noise and to establish the spectral composi- IVS 2013 Annual Report 162 Volvach and Kurbasova Table 1 The antenna parameters of the Simeiz station. Diameter D, m 22 Surface tolerance, mm (root mean square) 0.25 Wavelength limit, mm 2 Feed System Cassegrain system or primary focus Focal length F, m 9.525 Focal ratio F/D 0.43 Effective focal length for Cassegrain system, m 134.5 Mounting Azimuth-Elevation Pointing accuracy, arc sec. 10 Maximum rotation rate, degree/sec 1.5 Maximum tracking rate, arcsec/sec 150 Working range in Azimuth, degrees (0 to South) -270 ± 270 Degrees in Elevation 0 - 85 GPS -CRAO SIMI -SLR RT 22 KATS -SLR KATS -PIL Fig. 1 The Simeiz geodynamics area. 1,E+32 Q(OH), mol s -1 1,E+31 1,E+30 r, AU 1,E+29 0,4 0,45 0,5 0,55 0,6 0,65 Fig. 2 The relationship between the gas productivity of comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) and the heliocentric distance. IVS 2013 Annual Report Simeiz VLBI Station 163 Perecop (φ=46.2°, λ=33.7°) + Fonar (φ=45.4°, λ=36.6°) + + Kara Mrun (φ=45.4°, λ=32.7°) (φ=44.96°, λ=34.11°, H=255 м) + Simferopol +Kara Dag (φ=44.93°, λ=35.22°, H=577 м) + Sarich (φ=44.4°, λ=33.7°) Fig. 3 Crimean area. NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy: Daily Averaged Data Average Insolation Incident On A Horizontal Surface (tendency) 4. 4 K ara Dag 4. 3 S imferopol K ara Dag Perekop (N) 4. 2 Sarich (S) Fonar (E) S Kara Mrun (W ) 4. 1 4 /day 2 3. 9 3. 8 W swv kWh/m swv 3. 7 Simferopol E 3. 6 3. 5 N 3. 4 1 983. 5 1 986 .2 1989 1 991 .7 1994 .4 1997 .2 199 9.2 200 2.7 200 5.4 200 8.1 Dat a Fig. 4 The insolation for the Crimean area. IVS 2013 Annual Report.