Proposal code

w311

Proposal title

High Dynamic Range Imaging of Southern Hemisphere Blazars

The

Investigators and their

Affiliations

P.I. D. L. Meier JPL/Caltech, Pasadena, CA (USA)
R.A. Preston, D.L. Jones, M. Lister, JPL/Caltech (USA)
D.W. Murphy, B.G. Piner JPL/Caltech (USA)
D.L. Jauncey, J.E.J. Lovell, J.E. Reynolds, ATNF/CSIRO (Australia)
S.J. Tingay, A.K. Tzioumis ATNF/CSIRO (Australia)
P.M. McCulloch, M.E. Costa U. Tasmania (Australia)

Proposal Abstract

Due to the limited number of radio telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere, ground-based VLBI images of sources in the Southern Hemisphere have poorer resolution and dynamic range than VLBI images of Northern Hemisphere objects. However, the addition of VSOP to existing ground arrays can provide \uv-coverage comparable to northern sources when the southern sources lie near the VSOP apogee direction. This results in images with higher dynamic range and finer resolution (by 2-3 times). We propose to use this technique to monitor six bright southern blazars. Determination of brightness temperatures, beaming angles, and jet morphology will increase our understanding of this class of objects, will be useful for testing models of gamma-ray production, and will add to the growing database on properties of gamma-/non-gamma-ray producing blazars with very high brightness temperatures.

The full Cover Sheets (compressed post-script, typically 50kbytes) can be retrieved. Note that many proposals were reduced in extent by the Scientific Review Committee (e.g. by reducing the number of experiments), however the Cover Sheets contain the full proposal as submitted. Also note that AO3 proposals were submitted in October 1999, and information such as affiliations and contact details has changed for some proposers since that time. The Cover Sheets (and the details on this page, which were derived from the Cover Sheets) may therefore have changed.