- evn2024@mpifr.de
Support
Contribution
Developments in Long-Wavelength Southern-Hemisphere VLBI in the Context of the TANAMI Program
Speakers
- Dr. Jompoj WONGPHECHAUXSORN
Primary authors
Co-authors
- Niclas Alexander ESSER ()
- Tobias WINCHEN ()
- Prof. Matthias KADLER (Universitaet Wuerzburg)
- Hans-Rainer KLÖCKNER ()
- Dr. Ewan BARR (MPIfR)
- Mr. Florian RÖSCH (Universität Würzburg)
- Prof. Eduardo ROS ()
- Michael KRAMER ()
- Dr. Roopesh OJHA (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)
Content
The TANAMI program has been using the Southern-hemisphere LBA array and associated telescopes to monitor compact relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) at X- and K-band frequencies since 2007 with a focus on bright sources (~1Jy) and synergies with the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope. In preparation for the upcoming era of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and to exploit the capabilities of new radio-astronomical facilities operating at low frequencies, S-band observations of fainter AGN jets have become an integral part of the TANAMI program since 2020. The SKA-MPG telescope is a prototype antenna of the South African Square Kilometre Array (SKA)-MID component, located in the Karoo desert, South Africa. This telescope will play a crucial role in future VLBI observations, including those by the EVN, as one of the longest baseline stations, thereby improving spatial resolution and providing scheduling flexibility. In this presentation, I will discuss recent developments of the VLBI mode for the SKA-MPG telescope, including first fringe detections and observations of TeV gamma-ray emitting AGN. Adding the SKA-MPG telescope into the array used for TANAMI VLBI observations is an important step in order to access the faint AGN jet population with SKA-VLBI.