Evaluation of new submillimeter VLBI sites for the event horizon telescope

Abstract

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a very long-baseline interferometer built to image supermassive black holes on event-horizon scales. In this paper, we investigate candidate sites for an expanded EHT array with improved imaging capabilities. We use historical meteorology and radiative transfer analysis to evaluate site performance. Most of the existing sites in the EHT array have median zenith opacity less than 0.2 at 230 GHz during the March/ April observing season. Seven of the existing EHT sites have 345 GHz opacity less than 0.5 during observing months. Out of more than 40 candidate new locations analyzed, approximately half have 230 GHz opacity comparable to the existing EHT sites, and at least 17 of the candidate sites would be comparably good for 345 GHz observing. A group of new sites with favorable transmittance and geographic placement leads to greatly enhanced imaging and science on horizon scales. © 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.