Joshua Marvil (National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO))

Joshua Marvil Colloquium: The VLA Sky Survey and other NRAO Initiatives

Marsfield lecture theatre

Abstract

The Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) is a sensitive (~70 uJy/beam), high angular resolution (~2.5") all-sky radio survey of continuum and polarization over a bandwidth of 2-4 GHz. The survey will use 5500 hours of VLA time over 7 years to image the entire sky above -40 declination in three complete epochs to facilitate the discovery of variable and transient sources. Survey operations began in September 2017 and observation and initial imaging of the first epoch is now complete. This talk will provide an overview of the VLASS survey and highlight some of the technical challenges. I will also give a brief summary of two additional NRAO initiatives: science ready data products and the next generation VLA.