Site Selection and Evaluation of Submillimeter Wave Telescopes for Next-Generation Event Horizon Telescopes

Subjects: Astronomy submitted time 2024-07-03 Cooperative journals: 《天文学进展》

CHENG Yuan LU Ru-sen SHEN Zhi-qiang YU Wei

Abstract： In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) used very long baseline interfer#2;ometry to capture the first-ever image of a black hole. To meet the demand for dynamic imaging of black holes, the next generation of the EHT array will incorporate more stations located in the eastern hemisphere. The Tibet Plateau in China is the highest region on average elevation in the world, and its unique meteorological conditions make it a potential candidate for site selection. In this paper, we conducted a preliminary evaluation of the high-frequency radio observation conditions in the Tibet Plateau region using MERRA-2 data from the past three years (2019―2021), consisting of 759 data grid points. Based on the opacity performance of these grid points in different seasons, we selected the optimal grid points for each of the four seasons. In addition to the meteorological conditions of the already established sites, we evaluated these four grid points based on three meteorological factors: precipitable water vapor (PWV), liquid water path (LWP), and wind speed. Furthermore, using the meteorological conditions of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) as a standard, we defined the preliminary range for the site selection of the new station.

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