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DESY News: Negotiations for CTA northern site to start

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2015/03/26
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Negotiations for CTA northern site to start

On 26 March 2015, the partner countries of Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) have decided to start negotiations for the location of the telescope array in the northern hemisphere. At a meeting in Heidelberg representatives of ministries and funding agencies have decided to begin negotiations with Spain for a possible location on La Palma and Mexico for one in San Pedro Mártir. Another candidate site in Arizona (USA) is considered as a possible back-up site.

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CTA will be built on a site in the northern and one in the southern hemisphere.
“I appreciate that we have successfully chosen the northern candidate sites with whom we would like to start negotiations as soon as possible,” said Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph from the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education, chair of the CTA Resource Board, after the decision of the voting members representing Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. After negotiations, the Board will select the final site in November 2015. In regards to the southern hemisphere site, negotiations with the candidates Namibia and Chile are progressing and are expected to end in August 2015. Christian Stegmann from DESY added: “I’m very much looking forward to the final site decisions later this year; scientists worldwide are eager to see CTA advancing towards implementation.”

Currently in its pre-construction phase, determining the northern and southern hemisphere sites will be a critical step towards the realization of the Cherenkov Telescope Array. “I’m looking forward to converging on final designs for the telescope arrays now that negotiations will start with specific locations in mind,” said Christopher Townsley, CTA project manager. Following the site selection, the project will move forward with construction of the first telescopes on site planned for 2016.

 

 

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