Single-dish observations of methanol masers at 6.67 and 12.2 GHz with a 13.2 m VGOS radio telescope in the Mid-Atlantic

The RAEGE network (Portuguese/Spanish acronym for Atlantic Network of Geodynamic and Space Stations) is a cooperation project between the National Geographic Institute of Spain and the Regional Government of the Azores. The project will build and operate four geodetic stations: two in the Azores archipelago, in Portugal (Santa Maria and Flores islands), and two in Spain (Yebes and Gran Canaria island), respectively. The RAEGE sites of Yebes and Santa Maria are fully implemented and operational. One of the main goals of RAEGE is to contribute to the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) by using different space geodesy techniques, such as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), among others. The RAEGE Station of Santa Maria has a 13.2 m in diameter radio telescope with ring-focus optics design to fulfil the VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) requirements. It has a low noise level ultra-wideband cryogenic receiver from 2 to 14 GHz with ≤ 12 K average receiver noise temperature (Trx) and 40 K of system noise temperature (Tsys) at the zenith. This contribution announces the onsite detection of methanol maser in the star-forming region W3(OH), whose flux is larger than 500 Jy. The observations were made with the standard geodetic configuration at 6.67 GHz and 12.17 GHz frequencies, over 30 s integration time, with a Fast Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FFTS) with 100 MHz bandwidth and 16 384 spectral channels, yielding a frequency resolution of 6.1 KHz/channel. This achievement shows the potential of a VGOS-dedicated geodetic radio telescope for single-dish radio astronomy research projects.