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01-06-2012
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"European" radio astronomy transcends borders

Submitter: Kristine Yun
Description: On 10 May, JIVE welcomed the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa as a full member, signing a memorandum of agreement on VLBI collaboration.

NRF's Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) has been an active member of the EVN since 2001, and its 26m dish has participated in EVN observations for even longer.

HartRAO is working with various African countries to convert obsolete satellite communications dishes across the continent into radio telescopes to create an African VLBI network, which, it is planned, will also collaborate with JIVE. South Africa is augmenting its radio astronomical capabilities with the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7 array and MeerKAT), which will also be used for VLBI.

The NRF partnership commits JIVE to actively assist in making these facilities successful new additions to the VLBI network.

South Africa is not the first non-European member of JIVE. China became a member in 2005, joining facilities and national research councils from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Copyright: JIVE
 
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