Thai National Radio Astronomy Observatory Project and a future South-East Asian VLBI Network

Abstract

Abstract NARIT initiated a national flagship project in 2017 for development of radio astronomy and geodesy in Thailand. In this project, a 40-m Thai National Radio Telescope (TNRT) and a 13-m VLBI Global Observing System radio telescope are constructed in Chiang Mai. The 40-m TNRT is the largest telescope for radio astronomy in South-East Asia. Its flexible operation with a wide-frequency coverage 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 research fields, which were published in a white paper. Within the framework of collaboration with VLBI arrays in the world, TNRT will drastically improve the imaging quality and performances based on its unique geographical location. Through commissioning of the L-band system, the 1st Call for Proposals of the 40-m TNRT in the L-band1 has been internationally announced on 10th October 2023, TST 10 am. Future vision for establishment of forthcoming regional VLBI networks based on TNRT is also introduced: Thai National VLBI Array and South-East Asian VLBI Network in collaboration with Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.