News

The first MERCUR winterschool on plasma-astroparticle physics in the Physikzentrum, Bad Honnef, between January 12-17, 2014 has been announced. The school is designed for students at the PhD (or advanced master) level in astroparticle physics and will address topics like cosmic ray transport, interaction and detection.

The 3rd Workshop on the Implementation of the AERAP Framework Programme for Cooperation (http://www.aerap.org/), took place at the South African Mission to the EU in Brussels, on 4 and 5 November 2013. At the meeting RadioNet was represented by the Coordinator Anton Zensus and the Project Scientist Franco Mantovani.

e-MERLIN has been in full operational mode for a number of months. A meeting will be held in Manchester from 10-11 April 2014 to discuss early science, both from the Legacy projects and from PATT observations from Cycle 0 and the early part of the Cycle 1 allocations. Prior to this meeting, a two-day data school will be organized on 20-21 January, aimed at helping those unfamiliar with the techniques of radio interferometry to reduce e-MERLIN data. The events are sponsored by RadioNet3.

Registration is open for the meeting “Transformational Science with the SKA and Synergies with ALMA and other Contemporary Instruments”. The symposium will discuss progress in SKA science, as well as its relationship to scientific results from other contemporary instruments.

The opening ceremony of the Sardinia Radio Telescope took place last September 30, 2013. The Undersecretary to the Ministry of Education, University and Research of the Italian Government Marco Rossi Doria and the President of the Sardinia Region Ugo Cappellacci made the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The first RadioNet3 Periodic Report, which covers the 18-month period 2012-January to 2013-June has been submitted to the EC. Many people were directly involved, through contributing reports or in the editorial process. The report substantiates the many facets of RadioNet3 activities, the many partners and individuals involved, and the tangible outcomes achieved already in networking meetings, R&D, and transnational access research. The work done by partners in the RadioNet3 project will be formally reviewed in the formal Mid-Term Review in November this year.

RadioNet3 supports four outstanding events in the coming months. Three of the events are planned for September: the European Radio Interferometry School, the IRAM millimetre single dish summer School, and the Young European Radio Astronomers' Conference. Both schools are addressed to increase the expertise of young astronomers, the future users of the existing and coming on line radio astronomy facilities. The YERAC is meant as a platform for young radio astronomers to present their own research. In November, the The Radio Universe @ Ger’s (wave)-length conference is organized to celebrate the 65th birthday of Prof. Ger de Bruyn, who has been a leading figure in radio astronomy in the last few decades.

One of the goals of RadioNet3 is to stimulate new scientific activities connected with future facilities such as the Square Kilometre Array and the African VLBI Network. For this reason RadioNet3 supports the workshop "LARGE SCALE SCIENCE PROJECTS: EUROPE-AFRICA CONNECTS" through its NA ERATec. The workshop will be organized at the biennial event of the IEEE in Africa IEEE AFRICON 2013 (http://africon2013.org/). This flagship conference provides a platform for academics and industry professionals to share ideas and present their latest research. AFRICON 2013 will be hosted in the paradise island of Mauritius from 9 - 12 September 2013. The theme of the conference is "Sustainable engineering for a better future"

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, KASI, is pleased to host the 2nd International VLBI Technology Workshop in Seogwipo, Jeju Island of South Korea from 10th to 12th October, 2013

“The Sardinia Radio Telescope detects radio pulses at 7 GHz from the Magnetar PSR J1745-2900” The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is becoming on line and is planning to join the RadioNet3 TNA programme by the beginning of 2014.