Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope
In order to enhance the imaging capabilities of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and capture the first black hole movies, the next-generation EHT (ngEHT) team is building new stations. Most stations of the EHT and ngEHT project are located in the Western Hemisphere, leaving a large vacancy in the E...
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MDPI AG
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Galaxies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/11/1/7 |
| _version_ | 1797620878288093184 |
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| author | Wei Yu Ru-Sen Lu Zhi-Qiang Shen Jonathan Weintroub |
| author_facet | Wei Yu Ru-Sen Lu Zhi-Qiang Shen Jonathan Weintroub |
| author_sort | Wei Yu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In order to enhance the imaging capabilities of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and capture the first black hole movies, the next-generation EHT (ngEHT) team is building new stations. Most stations of the EHT and ngEHT project are located in the Western Hemisphere, leaving a large vacancy in the Eastern Hemisphere. Located in the center of the Eastern Hemisphere, the Tibetan Plateau is believed to have excellent sites for (sub)millimeter astronomical radio observations. Building a telescope here could help to fill this vacancy. In this study, we evaluated the meteorological conditions of a candidate site (Shigatse, hereafter SG) with good astronomical infrastructure for this telescope. The evaluation results show that the precipitable water vapor (PWV) values of the SG site are lower than 4 mm during winter and spring, comparable to those of some existing EHT stations, and the zenith transmittances at 230 GHz and 345 GHz during March and April are excellent. We simulated VLBI observations of Sgr A* and M87 based on the conditions of the SG site and those of other existing/planned (sub)millimeter telescopes with mutual visibility at 230 GHz. The results demonstrated that images of Sgr A* and M87 could be well reconstructed, indicating that the SG site is a good candidate for future EHT/ngEHT observations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:47:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-57d6420ead384a1a9cd41a75db984ba0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-4434 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:47:50Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Galaxies |
| spelling | doaj.art-57d6420ead384a1a9cd41a75db984ba02023-11-16T20:38:09ZengMDPI AGGalaxies2075-44342022-12-01111710.3390/galaxies11010007Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon TelescopeWei Yu0Ru-Sen Lu1Zhi-Qiang Shen2Jonathan Weintroub3Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, ChinaShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, ChinaShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, ChinaCenter for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USAIn order to enhance the imaging capabilities of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and capture the first black hole movies, the next-generation EHT (ngEHT) team is building new stations. Most stations of the EHT and ngEHT project are located in the Western Hemisphere, leaving a large vacancy in the Eastern Hemisphere. Located in the center of the Eastern Hemisphere, the Tibetan Plateau is believed to have excellent sites for (sub)millimeter astronomical radio observations. Building a telescope here could help to fill this vacancy. In this study, we evaluated the meteorological conditions of a candidate site (Shigatse, hereafter SG) with good astronomical infrastructure for this telescope. The evaluation results show that the precipitable water vapor (PWV) values of the SG site are lower than 4 mm during winter and spring, comparable to those of some existing EHT stations, and the zenith transmittances at 230 GHz and 345 GHz during March and April are excellent. We simulated VLBI observations of Sgr A* and M87 based on the conditions of the SG site and those of other existing/planned (sub)millimeter telescopes with mutual visibility at 230 GHz. The results demonstrated that images of Sgr A* and M87 could be well reconstructed, indicating that the SG site is a good candidate for future EHT/ngEHT observations.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/11/1/7EHTngEHTblack holesprecipitable water vapor |
| spellingShingle | Wei Yu Ru-Sen Lu Zhi-Qiang Shen Jonathan Weintroub Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Galaxies EHT ngEHT black holes precipitable water vapor |
| title | Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope |
| title_full | Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope |
| title_fullStr | Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope |
| title_short | Evaluation of a Candidate Site in the Tibetan Plateau towards the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope |
| title_sort | evaluation of a candidate site in the tibetan plateau towards the next generation event horizon telescope |
| topic | EHT ngEHT black holes precipitable water vapor |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/11/1/7 |
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