SARAO African VLBI School 2025
The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and the University of Pretoria are delighted to announce that the registration for the SARAO African VLBI School 2025 is now open.
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) involves connecting radio telescopes from around the world, including the National Facility at Hartebeesthoek Radio Observatory and MeerKAT in the future, to provide the best angular resolutions available at cm-wavelengths. The combination of excellent sensitivity and (sub)milli-arcsecond angular resolution allows several unique science use cases that can only be realised with VLBI. However, dealing with such high precision data requires gaining expert knowledge of how VLBI systems operate while also mastering the various stages of the data analysis workflow. It is also envisaged that an African VLBI Network will be developed in the future, and so, building the research capacity and expertise in VLBI techniques on the continent of Africa is important for realising this project.
The SARAO African VLBI School 2025 aims to provide the attendees with a complete overview of the scientific applications and analysis techniques needed to utilise VLBI. This will include a preliminary introduction to relevant radio astronomy observing techniques to provide a foundation knowledge, a detailed overview of VLBI systems and scientific use-cases, and introductory and advanced tutorials on data analysis processes. The attendees will also work in small groups to prepare a VLBI-related research proposal, based on the skills they develop at the school.
The school will be held at the University of Pretoria between 10 and 21 March 2025, and is open to all students, postdocs and academic staff from South Africa and the African SKA Partner countries (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia). Due to generous funding from the SARAO Radio Astronomy Advancement Programme (RAAP) and the DSTI-NRF SARChI programme, the full costs (travel, accommodation and subsistence) will be covered for all attendees.
Registration is now open and those interested in attending can apply via the form below.
https://forms.gle/
Applications will be reviewed as they are submitted, so those interested in attending are advised to submit their registration as soon as possible, but no later than 10 February 2025.
Any questions or queries can be addressed to Prof. John McKean (john.mckean@up.ac.za).
Dr Bonita de Swardt
