Teide Observatory (in Spanish Observatorio del Teide, IAU code 954) is an astronomical observatory located at an altitude of 2,390 metres on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). It has been operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias since its inauguration in 1964. It is a site with excellent observing conditions for radio observations (median pwv of 3.5 mm) and a long tradition (since 1984) in CMB research. The Teide Observatory hosts the CMBLab, a leading cosmic microwave background observatory in the Northern Hemisphere, covering a wide frequency range from 10 to 220 GHz.
Two radio telescopes (QUIJOTE and GroundBIRD) are in place and two more (TMS and LSPE-STRIP) will be installed next year. The operating telescopes are described below.
QUIJOTE
The QUIJOTE experiment consists of two 2.25m radio telescopes equipped with three instruments designed to measure the polarisation of the microwave sky in the frequency range between 10 GHz and 90 GHz and at large angular scales.
QUIJOTE telescope 1 (QT1):
|
geographic longitude: |
28°18’01.2″N |
|
geographic latitude: |
16°30’36.3″W |
|
altitude above sea level: |
2400 m |
|
diameter of telescope: |
2.25 m |
|
minimum elevation: |
30º |
QUIJOTE telescope 2 (QT2):
|
geographic longitude: |
28°18 01.0″N |
|
geographic latitude: |
16°30’36.3″W |
|
altitude above sea level: |
2400 m |
|
diameter of telescope: |
2.25 m |
|
minimum elevation: |
30º |
QUIJOTE telescopes at Teide Observatory.
Source: https://research.iac.es/proyecto/quijote
QUIJOTE instruments:
All instruments are broad-band polarimeters, producing I, Q and U Stokes parameters.
|
Instrument |
Frequency band |
Number of pixels |
Status |
|
10-15 GHz, 15-20GHz |
5 |
In operation |
|
|
26-36GHz |
29 |
In operation |
|
|
35-47GHz |
29 |
In operation |
|
|
NGI |
85-110GHz |
300 |
In development |
GroundBIRD
GroundBIRD is an instrument designed to observe the polarisation of the cosmic microwave background at 145 and 220 GHz with a 30 cm radio telescope.
Telescope
|
geographic longitude: |
28°18’01.7″N |
|
geographic latitude: |
16°30’37.0″W |
|
altitude above sea level: |
2400 m |
|
diameter of telescope: |
30 cm |
|
minimum elevation: |
60º |
GroundBIRD uses 160 KIDs detectors in two frequency bands: 135-155 GHz and 210-230 GHz
GroundBIRD in 2019. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GroundBIRD