Carole Jackson (Curtin University)

MWA & progress towards SKA_LOW

Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Work by the “Low-Frequency Aperture Array” (LFAA) R&D Consortium for the future SKA telescope is concentrated on the set of antennas, on board amplifiers and local processing required for the Aperture Array telescope of the SKA. The LFAA covers the lowest frequency band for the SKA (50 – 350 MHz) in the Baseline Design. It is an aperture array consisting of over a quarter of a million wide bandwidth antennas of a single design. The configuration is very close packed with 75% of the antennas within a 2km diameter core and the remaining collecting area situated on three spiral arms, extending out to a radius of 50km and enabling higher spatial resolution observations.

Partners in this consortium have designed, realised and now operate SKA pathfinder and precursor low frequency array telescopes such as LOFAR and the MWA.

Carole Jackson (Curtin University) will provide an update on SKA-LOW development and discuss the work currently underway by the LFAA Consortium.