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| Radio Science |
Southland is located such that it is ideally suited for radio astronomy, ionospheric research and tracking of some specific rocket launches. Venture Southland has identified a range of such opportunities which can be developed utilising Southland’s location and natural advantages and is taking an integrated approach to these projects in order to maximise the opportunities and benefits for both the province and researchers.
In particular, effort is being directed to develop joint facilities at Awarua, ten kilometres to the south of Invercargill.
Auroral Radar
Southland’s proximity to the South Pole has already been recognised by the commissioning of the $3 million Unwin SuperDARN facility at Awarua. This is used to study ionospheric activity and aurora australis. Venture Southland facilitated its construction for Australia’s La Trobe University in 2005. The success of Unwin has already helped promote Southland as both a good geographic location for radio science work and as a place where such ventures are encouraged and easily accommodated.
Rocket Tracking
Southland is fortuitously located on the launch trajectory of Europe’s Spaceport launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana to the International Space Station (ISS). For the Ariane 5 ATV launch series, manoeuvres will take place when the launch vehicle passes over Southland that need to be observed. A tracking station has been established at Awarua to undertake these observations.
Radio Astronomy
Modern radio astronomy takes advantage of affordable high performance computing and high-speed data communication networks to computationally synthesise huge antennas by using a number of much smaller and cheaper, well separated antennas and a technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). Southland effectively forms both the south-western part of New Zealand and the south-eastern part of Australasia and so is ideally suited for collaboration with radio astronomy facilities in Auckland (AUT Centre for Radiophysics and Space Research) and Australia. Work is underway to capitalise on this geographic advantage, particularly as Australasia is currently one of two locations being considered for a proposed billion Euro international radio astronomy project, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
SKA New Zealand SKA Consortium Australian SKA Consortium
Low frequency radio astronomy projects involving local schools are also being undertaken.
Radio Jove
For more information contact: Robin McNeill, Enterprise Project Manager, +64 (3) 211 1410 robin@venturesouthland.co.nz
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