Coffee talks
Friday 27/01/2023 @ 11:30, Sala riunioni quarto piano e on-line (meet.google.com/sue-bwvk-axf)
Monia Negusini (INAF-IRA Bologna), "Geodetic activities @ IRA: what’s new?"
Geodetic research began at the IRA when the Medicina and Noto telescopes, equipped with S/X receivers, joined the international network managed by the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry. Alongside the fundamental observational task, research work on crustal deformation and retrieval of water vapor (one of the greenhouse gases) at VLBI sites was developed. When the Italian Space Agency installed the Global Positioning System (GPS) at our observatories, the co-location study of the VLBI with the GPS was undertaken. The group has also been involved in GPS activities in Antarctica, thanks to the National Antarctic Research Programme. In collaboration with the National Metrological Institute (INRiM) and the development of the Italian Quantum Backbone (IQB) infrastructure, providing the most accurate and stable remote frequency reference, from Torino to Medicina, new research work in metrology has begun. VLBI experiments were carried out to test whether optical frequency distribution over fiber can improve measurement capability in astronomical and geodetic VLBI. The OCC-VLBI project was set up which aims to perform broadband VLBI observations, when Korean tri-band receivers will be installed on INAF antennas, over intercontinental distances to compare optical clocks, which could be used by the international metrology community in the redefinition of the second. In a preliminary study, K-band receivers are used, already present on Italian and Korean antennas, and the first observations have been performed. I will show some of the highlights of our research and the latest results.