What we do

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) is a national facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and responsible for implementing South Africa’s strategic investment in radio astronomy, including leading South Africa’s involvement in the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). Its tasks include the development and operations of the stateof-the-art MeerKAT radio telescope in the Karoo and the geodesy and VLBI activities at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO). SARAO also implements the Africa Programme, which includes coordination of the African VLBI Network (AVN) for the eight SKA partner countries in Africa (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia), as well as South Africa’s contribution to the infrastructure and engineering planning and construction for the SKA radio telescope.

To maximise the return on South Africa’s investment in radio astronomy, SARAO manages programmes to create capacity in radio astronomy science and engineering research, and the technical capacity required to support site operations. SARAO headquarters are located in Cape Town, not far from the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). The observing site, which is now part of the Meerkat National Park, is approximately 650 km northeast of Cape Town in the semi-arid region of the Karoo. South Africa’s little populated Karoo provides the perfect radio quiet backdrop for the ground-breaking MeerKAT and SKA-Mid telescopes.

The MeerKAT telescope is operated remotely from Cape Town to reduce the number of people working at the telescope site and to minimise any potential radio interference. In pursuit of establishing South Africa as an international hub for astronomy, radio astronomy investments in South Africa are complemented with investment in optical astronomy (the flagship instrument being the Southern African Large Telescope, SALT) and gamma ray astronomy (using the Namibian-based High Energy Stereoscopic System, H.E.S.S.). To this end, SARAO’s vision is as a technical and scientific solutions provider to astronomy.