| Description: | The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT: Public Organization) initiated a national flagship project in 2017 with the empyreal goal of capacity building through the construction of national radio telescopes for radio astronomy and geodesy. To achieve this, NARIT has established the Thai National Radio Astronomy Observatory (TNRO), in Chiangmai, the northern part of Thailand. At this observatory, two radio telescopes have been constructed: one is a 40-m Thai National Radio Telescope (TNRT) in collaboration with Yebes Observatory, MPIfR, and JBCA, and another one is a 13-m VGOS radio telescope as its co-location in collaboration with SHAO. The 40-m TNRT is the largest telescope for radio astronomy in South-East Asia. Its flexible operation with a wide-coverage of observable frequencies 0.3-115 GHz will allow us to uniquely contribute to the time-domain astronomy as well as carry out unbiased surveys for a wide variety of science research fields, which were published in a white paper (accessible via QR code in the figure). Moreover, within the framework of collaboration with VLBI arrays in the world, these TNRT and VGOS telescopes will drastically improve the imaging quality and performances based on its unique geographical location, for both radio astronomy and geodetic VLBI studies.
In this talk, we will provide an overview of these activities in the TNRO with the 1st CfP of the TNRT L-band as the 1st step for scientifically launching (accessible via QR code in the figure) and demonstrate simulations how these TNRO telescopes improve VLBI imaging quality and performances due to their unique geographical location. In addition, as well as introducing other essential facilities and activities in NARIT briefly, we will present future expandability of the TNRO through constructing other telescopes and installing a VLBI data correlator, resulting in establishment of regional VLBI networks in Thailand and South-East Asia. |
