The international partners of the Azores in the Atlantic Network of Geodynamic and Space Stations (RAEGE) lost interest in Flores geodetic stationso the investment will have to be made by the region, the Regional Government revealed on Tuesday.
“In Flores, the region intends to increase the functionalities within the financial possibilities, because there is no interest from international partners in the island of Flores. It will have to be the region alone to guarantee the increase in the capacity of the Flores Island station“, said the regional undersecretary of the Presidency of the Executive of the Azores.
Faria e Castro intervenes in the plenary session of the Regional Legislative Assembly, which has begun this day in the city of Horta, responding to the questions formulated by Alexandra Manes, deputy of the BE, in the framework of an interrogation of the government of the island of Flores, scheduled at the request of the Liberal Initiative.
“There is no lack of interest in the region [na estação geodésica das Flores]. There is a different difficulty than on the island of Santa Maria: on the island of Flores, the region will have to take responsibility”, explained Faria e Castro.
The official recalled that the RAEGE “works based on a regional memorandum with the National Geographic Institute of Spain” that led, in 2017, to the installation of a geodetic station in Santa María.
“In Flores it was of interest to the region that some equipment be installed with the aim of also mounting an antenna similar to the one in Santa María. The one in Santa María was paid for by the Spanish, the region has assumed almost zero charges up to now”, observed Faria e Castro.
The Santa María Island Station of the Atlantic Network of Geodynamic and Space Stations (RAEGE) opened in May 2015 with a view to carrying out studies with applications in areas such as civil protection or the space industry.
At the time, the station on the island of Santa María was one of the four stations that make up the RAEGE and the second to be in operation, after the inauguration of the station in Yebes, Gualajara, Spain.
The third station was then expected to be in the Canary Islands archipelago (Spain), under construction, and the fourth on the island of Flores, in the Azores, with completion scheduled for 2017, according to information revealed in 2015 to the Lusa agency by the Regional Government of the Azores.
The construction of these stations to carry out astronomy, geodesy and geophysics studies was the result of a protocol between the Government of the Azores and the Government of Spain, through the National Geographic Institute of Spain, signed in 2010, and which provided for an investment total of 25 million euros. , co-financed with European funds.
The Santa María station, equipped “with state-of-the-art technology, unique in the country“, includes a VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) radio telescope.
It is a 13 meter diameter antenna that will be able to monitor, for example, the movement of tectonic plates and the positioning of space stations or measure the orientation and rotation of the earth in relation to the stars.
The data collected by this station is considered essential to detect movements associated with, for example, earthquakes, and the technology that currently measures this type of movement with greater precision.
Source: Observadora
