Title: New Zealand pathway towards Asia-Pacific and global e-VLBI research and development
ArXiv ID: 1111.0648
Date: 2011-11-04
Authors: Sergei Gulyaev, Tim Natusch, Stuart Weston, Peter Thomasson
📝 Abstract
Over the past 3 years, Auckland University of Technology has established the first radio astronomical observatory in New Zealand, which, because of its remote geographic location, has quickly become a member of a number of international VLBI networks, in particular the IVS and the LBA. Not only has this added significantly to the observational power in the Pacific and Oceania, but by utilising new fibre connections within New Zealand, and across the Pacific and the Tasman Sea, the New Zealand radio telescopes have now been linked to many in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Recent astronomical results are presented and plans for widening New Zealand participation in Australasian, Asia-Pacific and global VLBI research and development are outlined. Real-time e-VLBI is a vital part of New Zealand's capability development towards the SKA. The rapid and challenging establishment of New Zealand radio astronomy can serve as a model for the engagement in mega-Science and e-Science by resource-limited institutions and nations. Perspectives for collaboration between New Zealand and Thailand in the field of radio astronomy are included.
💡 Deep Analysis
📄 Full Content
The 11th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting 2011
NARIT Conference Series, Vol. 1, c⃝2012
S. Komonjinda, Y. Kovalev, and D. Ruffolo, eds.
New Zealand pathway towards Asia-Pacific
and global e-VLBI research and development
S Gulyaev1,T Natusch1,S Weston1 and P Thomasson1,2
1Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research, Auckland University of
Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland, New Zealand
2The University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield,
Cheshire SK11 9DL, U.K.
E-mail: Sergei Gulyaev Abstract.
Over the past 3 years, Auckland University of Technology has established
the first radio astronomical observatory in New Zealand, which, because of
its remote geographic location, has quickly become a member of a number of
international VLBI networks, in particular the IVS and the LBA. Not only has
this added significantly to the observational power in the Pacific and Oceania,
but by utilising new fibre connections within New Zealand, and across the
Pacific and the Tasman Sea, the New Zealand radio telescopes have now
been linked to many in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Recent astronomical
results are presented and plans for widening New Zealand participation in
Australasian, Asia-Pacific and global VLBI research and development are
outlined.
Real-time e-VLBI is a vital part of New Zealand’s capability
development towards the SKA. The rapid and challenging establishment
of New Zealand radio astronomy can serve as a model for the engagement
in mega-Science and e-Science by resource-limited institutions and nations.
Perspectives for collaboration between New Zealand and Thailand in the field
of radio astronomy are included.
1. Introduction
The first radio astronomy undertaken in New Zealand was in the very early
pioneering days in 1948.
John Bolton and Gordon Stanley, from CSIRO in
Australia, initially set up a cliff-top interferometer using the sea as a mirror,
first near Pakiri, ∼80 km north of Auckland on the east coast of North Island,
and then later at a World War II radar station near Piha, to the west of
Auckland. The interferometer operated at 100 MHz, and Bolton and Stanley
were able to locate for the first time the sources of radio waves from three
sources, Taurus A, Centaurus A and Virgo A, which were now seen to be outside
the solar system.
This was probably the opening of a new window on the
Universe, but it was not until 2005 that further significant radio astronomy was
conducted in New Zealand. Brent Addis, a radio ‘ham’, had built a 6-m radio
telescope at Karaka (Figure 1(a)), to the south of Auckland, and this was used
at 1.6 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array at Narrabri (ATCA) for
the first VLBI observations across the Tasman Sea by the newly formed group
arXiv:1111.0648v1 [physics.geo-ph] 2 Nov 2011
2 New Zealand pathway towards Asia-Pacific and global e-VLBI research and development
Figure 1. (a) The Karaka 6-m telescope (b) First fringe from PKS 1921-231
Figure 2. The 12-m Patriot Antenna and its parameters
at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and scientists at the Australia
Telescope National Facility (ATNF).
Figure 1 (b) shows the first fringe from the radio telescope at 1.6 GHz. Since
then, AUT has acquired a 12.1-m Cassegrain radio telescope manufactured by
Patriot (See Figure 2 for its parameters and associated equipment), which has
been sited in a radio-quiet zone (shown to be radio quiet by actual measurements)
∼55 km to the north of Auckland and a few kilometres to the south of
Warkworth.
It was officially opened on 8 October 2008.
More recently, a
former satellite-communications 30.5-m radio telescope on the same Warkworth
site, and ∼200m from the 12-m antenna, has been taken over by AUT. This
telescope, currently being upgraded, is capable of operations up to 40 GHz. So
the Warkworth Observatory has come into being (Figure 3).
New Zealand pathway towards Asia-Pacific and global e-VLBI research and development 3
200 metres
Figure 3. The Warkworth Observatory showing the relative positions of the 2
telescopes
2. Network Connectivity
The introduction of the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network
(KAREN) in 2005 and the linking into it of the Warkworth Observatory
somewhat later has enabled data to be transferred between the Warkworth
Observatory and Australia and the U.S.A, and onwards further to Europe and
Japan at data rates of 1Gbps. Initial VLBI test observations between the 12-m
telescope and Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA) telescopes in Australia have
shown that New Zealand can contribute on a regular basis to LBA observations
and a formal joining with the LBA was signed in 2010.
3. Australasian SKA and Trans-Tasman Collaboration
The introduction of the Australian Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Pathfinder
telescopes (ASKAP) at the Murchison Radio Observatory in Western Australia
and also the inclusion of the Warkworth 12-m telescope, has meant that
the maximum baseline of the LBA has been extended to ∼5500 km with a
consequ
