An overview of the Sardinia Radio Telescope geodetic potential at national and international levels

Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) potentials in geodesy are mostly connected to VLBI techniques and they may have a remarkable impact on both national and international geodetic science. A development plan concerning geodetic technical instrumentation should be provided soon, so as to perform geodetic observations with the SRT in the near future. The SRT is being developed within a well-consolidated national environment of geodetic VLBI activities: Medicina and Noto observatories have been continuously participating in geodetic VLBI observations for almost two decades. Matera observatory, whose 20-m VLBI telescope is entirely devoted to geodetic VLBI, is one of the few fundamental geodetic Earth’s observatories and is running VLBI experiments since 1990. At a national level, the SRT has the capability to establish a self-consistent Italian VLBI network: it would represent a unique facility in Europe. At an international level, the SRT should be made part of the geodetic International VLBI Network whose operations are supported and coordinated by the IVS (International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry). IVS promotes research and technological development in geodesy and astrometry, with important outcomes for the astronomical VLBI community, too. In the following sections, the contribution of the SRT to space geodesy, geophysics and related research fields will be outlined.