The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is one of three Square Kilometre Array Precursor telescopes and is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Murchison Shire of the mid-west of Western Australia, a location chosen for its extremely low levels of radio frequency interference. The...

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Main Authors: Goeke, Robert F., Lonsdale, Colin John, Cappallo, Roger J., Corey, Brian E., Hewitt, Jacqueline N., Kincaid, Barton B., Kratzenberg, Eric W., McWhirter, Stephen R., Morgan, Edward H., Remillard, Ronald Alan, Rogers, Alan E. E., Salah, J. E., Whitney, Alan R., Williams, Christopher Leigh
Other Authors: Haystack Observatory
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: CSIRO Publishing 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88460
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1941-7458
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author Goeke, Robert F.
Lonsdale, Colin John
Cappallo, Roger J.
Corey, Brian E.
Hewitt, Jacqueline N.
Kincaid, Barton B.
Kratzenberg, Eric W.
McWhirter, Stephen R.
Morgan, Edward H.
Remillard, Ronald Alan
Rogers, Alan E. E.
Salah, J. E.
Whitney, Alan R.
Williams, Christopher Leigh
author2 Haystack Observatory
author_facet Haystack Observatory
Goeke, Robert F.
Lonsdale, Colin John
Cappallo, Roger J.
Corey, Brian E.
Hewitt, Jacqueline N.
Kincaid, Barton B.
Kratzenberg, Eric W.
McWhirter, Stephen R.
Morgan, Edward H.
Remillard, Ronald Alan
Rogers, Alan E. E.
Salah, J. E.
Whitney, Alan R.
Williams, Christopher Leigh
author_sort Goeke, Robert F.
collection MIT
description The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is one of three Square Kilometre Array Precursor telescopes and is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Murchison Shire of the mid-west of Western Australia, a location chosen for its extremely low levels of radio frequency interference. The MWA operates at low radio frequencies, 80–300 MHz, with a processed bandwidth of 30.72 MHz for both linear polarisations, and consists of 128 aperture arrays (known as tiles) distributed over a ~3-km diameter area. Novel hybrid hardware/software correlation and a real-time imaging and calibration systems comprise the MWA signal processing backend. In this paper, the as-built MWA is described both at a system and sub-system level, the expected performance of the array is presented, and the science goals of the instrument are summarised.
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spelling mit-1721.1/884602022-10-03T09:54:37Z The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies Goeke, Robert F. Lonsdale, Colin John Cappallo, Roger J. Corey, Brian E. Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Kincaid, Barton B. Kratzenberg, Eric W. McWhirter, Stephen R. Morgan, Edward H. Remillard, Ronald Alan Rogers, Alan E. E. Salah, J. E. Whitney, Alan R. Williams, Christopher Leigh Haystack Observatory MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Goeke, Robert F. Lonsdale, Colin John Cappallo, Roger J. Corey, Brian E. Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Kincaid, Barton B. Kratzenberg, Eric W. McWhirter, Stephen R. Morgan, Edward H. Remillard, Ronald Alan Rogers, Alan E. E. Salah, J. E. Whitney, Alan R. Williams, Christopher Leigh The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is one of three Square Kilometre Array Precursor telescopes and is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Murchison Shire of the mid-west of Western Australia, a location chosen for its extremely low levels of radio frequency interference. The MWA operates at low radio frequencies, 80–300 MHz, with a processed bandwidth of 30.72 MHz for both linear polarisations, and consists of 128 aperture arrays (known as tiles) distributed over a ~3-km diameter area. Novel hybrid hardware/software correlation and a real-time imaging and calibration systems comprise the MWA signal processing backend. In this paper, the as-built MWA is described both at a system and sub-system level, the expected performance of the array is presented, and the science goals of the instrument are summarised. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST CAREER-0847753) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0457585) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0908884) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-0835713) United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-0510247) Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory MIT School of Science 2014-07-22T14:13:51Z 2014-07-22T14:13:51Z 2013-01 2012-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1323-3580 1448-6083 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88460 Tingay, S. J., R. Goeke, J. D. Bowman, D. Emrich, S. M. Ord, D. A. Mitchell, M. F. Morales, et al. “The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 30 (January 2013). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1941-7458 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pasa.2012.007 Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf CSIRO Publishing arXiv
spellingShingle Goeke, Robert F.
Lonsdale, Colin John
Cappallo, Roger J.
Corey, Brian E.
Hewitt, Jacqueline N.
Kincaid, Barton B.
Kratzenberg, Eric W.
McWhirter, Stephen R.
Morgan, Edward H.
Remillard, Ronald Alan
Rogers, Alan E. E.
Salah, J. E.
Whitney, Alan R.
Williams, Christopher Leigh
The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies
title The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies
title_full The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies
title_fullStr The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies
title_full_unstemmed The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies
title_short The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies
title_sort murchison widefield array the square kilometre array precursor at low radio frequencies
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88460
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1941-7458
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