Arizona Radio Observatory

Aug 20, 2024: The ARO 2024B Call for Proposals for October 21, 2024 - February 15, 2025 has been released.

The Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO) currently operates two radio telescopes in southern Arizona: the new UArizona ARO 12-meter Telescope (12M), which is an ALMA prototype antenna located 50 miles southwest of Tucson on Kitt Peak, and the UArizona ARO Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) located on Mt. Graham in south eastern Arizona.

Combined, the two telescopes routinely cover the entire millimeter and submillimeter windows from about 4.6 mm to about 0.6 mm, and at the UArizona ARO Submillimeter Telescope observations can be made all the way to 0.3 mm with PI instruments.

The telescopes are operated around-the-clock for about 9 to 10 months per year for a combined 10,000 hours per observing season (about 1500 hours are dedicated to sub-mm wavelengths at the UArizona SMT).

The ARO offices are centrally located in the Steward Observatory building on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson Arizona.

ARO receives the bulk of operations funding from the State of Arizona and additional support comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for instrumentation development. Current NSF support includes Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) funding for Development of a State-of-the-Art Multiband Receiver for Arizona Radio Observatory's New ALMA Antenna (PI Ziurys; AST-1531366), Mid-Scale Innovations Program (MSIP) funding for The Event Horizon Telescope Experiment (PI Marrone; SV5-85009/AST- 1440254), a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program grant for Mapping the Fuel for Star Formation Across Cosmic History (PI Marrone; AST-1653228), an Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation grant for Measuring Reionization and the Growth of Molecular Gas with TIME (PI Marrone; S455656/AST-1910598), and a Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) award for Black Hole Astrophysics in the Era of Distributed Resources and Expertise (PI Psaltis; OISE-1743747).