Aerial view shows the Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope in Daocheng county, Ganzi Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan province, July 14, 2023. (PHOTO COURTESY OF CHINA MEDIA GROUP)

BEIJING - A solar telescope array in southwest China has started trial observation, according to its developer, the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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The Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope (DSRT), a solar radio imaging telescope that sits in Daocheng County, Sichuan Province, is a key part of the country's phase-2 Meridian Project.

The array, consisting of 313 six-meter-wide parabolic antennas circling a 100-meter-high calibration tower in the center, is the world's largest synthesis aperture radio telescope.

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The array will continuously monitor the sun and explore methods to monitor and warn of pulsars, fast radio bursts and asteroids. Researchers will study high-precision data processing methods to further improve its image quality.