The First Station of the Long Wavelength Array

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Long Wavelength Array, a new radio telescope with 53 stations in New Mexico, detailing its design, capabilities, and the status of its first station, LWA-1.

Contribution

It presents the design, expected performance, and current status of the first station of the Long Wavelength Array, a large-scale low-frequency radio telescope.

Findings

First station (LWA-1) has all antennas installed.

Commissioning activities are underway.

Expected operational date in early 2011.

Abstract

The Long Wavelength Array (LWA) will be a new multi-purpose radio telescope operating in the frequency range 10-88 MHz. Upon completion, LWA will consist of 53 phased array "stations" distributed over a region about 400 km in diameter in the state of New Mexico. Each station will consist of 256 pairs of dipole-type antennas whose signals are formed into beams, with outputs transported to a central location for high-resolution aperture synthesis imaging. The resulting image sensitivity is estimated to be a few mJy (5 sigma, 8 MHz, 2 polarizations, 1 hr, zenith) in 20-80 MHz; with resolution and field of view of (8", 8 deg) and (2",2 deg) at 20 MHz and 80 MHz, respectively. All 256 dipole antennas are in place for the first station of the LWA (called LWA-1), and commissioning activities are well underway. The station is located near the core of the EVLA, and is expected to be fully operational in early 2011.