Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics MWA Project: Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics MWA Consortium: CurtinU, ANU, UMelbourne, SwinburneU, USydney, UWestern Australia, UTasmania, MIT, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, ASU, UW, Raman Research Institute, CSIRO
MWA Project:
MWA: Science Goal: EoR Hydrogen 21cm Z= MHz … to 320 MHz Statistical Detection through Power Spectrum: angular scales 4’ to 30’
MWA: Instrument Strategy: Geographic Location Large N / Small D (512/5m) Compact Array “Real-time System” Gianni! Science Goal: EoR Hydrogen 21cm Z= MHz … to 320 MHz
Location of MWA Australia’s SKA site (infrastructure, etc)
The Shire of Murchison is a large agricultural region in the central part of Western Australia, and is the only shire in Australia without a town. Population: 114 (2009) Area: km² (15,897.0 sq mi) ~ Netherlands Strategy: less RFI lower power levels fewer bits lower bandwidths less complexity lower cost
Small D ~ 5m Chris Williams (for scale)
Hydra A 115 MHz 50 deg between nulls HPBW ~ 30 deg Field of View Small D => Large Field of View
Virgo A 3C273 Jan 2010 Field of View Small D => Large Field of View
“Small N” Aerial Photo of “Small N” = 32 Tile Prototype Array:
West-East [m] Locations of Antenna Tiles in 32T Array
Layout of Large N = 512 Tile Array (128 intermediate) COMPACT * Densely populated core for Surface Brightness sensitivity (!!!!!) * Ionospheric wobble treated as rubber sheet sky 1.5 km Strategy: less complexity lower cost
Correlator: FPGA based “hardware correlator” and fine Filter Bank (10KHz channels) Correlate all pairs => 130,816 Interferometer Baselines (Prototyping & Testing … baseband recorders, software filter banks, correlators, and beamformers, …)
Hydra A 115 Mhz Jan 2010
Hydra A 121 Mhz Chris Williams Sep 2010
Pictor A Parkes Catalog
Pictor A Parkes Catalog MWA Sources
32T Image 114 MHz UV coverage ~ 10 x 2 min over wide HA range
Centaurus A
CenA Left: MWA contours on ACTA+PKS image Right: MWA 115MHz image
The Sun with MWA Comparison with X-ray observations
Solar Radio Bursts MHz Oberoi, Matthews, et al
Grid of Radio Spectra across the face of the Sun Oberoi, Matthews, et al
Instantaneous 32T uv-coverage
Ord, Mitchell & Greenhill “2PiP” baseband recording system Vela Pulsar
Ord, Mitchell & Greenhill “2PiP” baseband recording system
MWA EoR Target Fields Chris Williams, MIT
MWA Future August lay in the infrastructure December lay tiles - populate CSIRO facility bldg (with correlator/RTS hardware) February place receivers June T hardware installed - commissioning phase
Contrast between T b (Moon) and T b (Sky) T b (Sky) Non-thermal + EoR,etc T b (Moon) Thermal ~B.B. Experiment: T b = T b ( moon ) - T b ( sky ) TbTb TbTb BB spectrum: smooth & known Not Smooth !?
Recent Data Sets… LOFAR … several long observations at Full Moon Nov, Dec, Jan, …(?) MWA… few hours near Full Moon, Sept.
Ben McKinley, ANU Moon Field - 83 MHz
Moon Field MHz
Moon Field MHz Day 1
Moon Field MHz Day 2
MHz T b = T b ( moon ) - T b ( sky )