Geodetic research at IRA-INAF: recent results between a golden past and a gloomy future

M. Negusini1, P. Sarti1 and C. Abbondanza1

1Istituto di Radioastronomia, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy

Oral presentation

Medicina (BO) and Noto (SR) 32 m, AZ-EL, VLBI radiotelescopes are managed by the Institute of Radioastronomy (IRA) and funded by the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF). They have been successfully performing geodetic observations since the end of the 80's. Nowadays, geodetic research is not an IRA institutional research activity any longer. The finalization of the Sardinia Radio Telescope is foreseen at the end of 2009 and, in INAF's perspectives, should replace the two older VLBI antennas. Unfortunately, it is not meant to operate at S/X geodetic frequencies. If, on the operational side, the Italian observing activity in geodetic VLBI will shortly experience a dramatic cut (the two 32 m antennas will most probably be dismissed by the end of 2011), on the research side, IRA geodetic activity is quickly coming to an end.
We focus here on the role of the two telescopes during these two decades: their importance in the Mediterranean region and within the national Italian scenario, we review the most important activities carried out so far and present the most recent solutions obtained with CALC/SOLVE regarding crustal deformation.