Australia Telescope Compact Array - Australia Telescope National Facility

Our Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at the Paul Wild Observatory on Gomeroi Country, has wide frequency coverage (from 1 to 105 GHz), flexible array configurations, and is able to respond quickly to automatic triggers of astronomical events. The ATCA also serves as a practical training ground for emerging radio astronomers, providing invaluable hands-on experience.

ATCA Capabilities

The ATCA is an array of six 22m diameter antennas. Five antennas are able to be relocated along a 3km east-west rail track, with a 214m north-south spur. The sixth antenna is fixed in location 3km west of the east-west rail track.
All antennas can observe in the 16cm (1.1 to 3.1 GHz), 4cm (4 to 12), 15mm (16 to 25 GHz), and 7mm (30 to 50 GHz) bands. The five antennas on the rail track can also observe in the 3mm (83.5–106 GHz) band.
The array provides two IF bands, both 2 GHz wide. The standard continuum mode has 2048 channels across 2.048 GHz, with higher spectral resolution “zoom” bands able to be placed across the band.
There are 17 standard array configurations, and the array is generally reconfigured from one array to another every few weeks, depending on proposal pressure. Baseline lengths ranging from 30m to 6km are provided by the standard arrays. Details are provided in the ATCA Users Guide.

Applying for time

Observing proposals must be submitted using OPAL.
There are two Calls for Proposals each year.
Target of Opportunity proposals can be submitted at any time for unexpected astronomical events of scientific interest.
After a proprietary period of 18 months, ATCA data becomes publicly available from the AT Online Archive (ATOA).