| Description: | The recently published images of the black hole shadow in M87* by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration open up a new avenue for black hole research and VLBI imaging. In order to simulate the capabilities of VLBI arrays such as the EHT under different (weather) circumstances and configurations, we have developed SYMBA, an end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline. SYMBA takes into account various realistic observation and calibration effects that have not been included in earlier EHT simulations. In my talk, I will also present imaging simulations of the Event Horizon Imager (EHI) Space VLBI concept. The EHI consists of two or three satellites in circular Medium Earth Orbits with slightly different orbital radii observing at high frequencies (up to ~690 GHz). The concept could be used to reconstruct high-fidelity images of black holes with a resolution of about 4 uas, which is an order of magnitude higher than the current EHT resolution. |
