Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics MWA Project: Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics Centre of Excellence for All-sky

Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysicswww.caastro.orgMWA Project:

Centre of Excellence for All-sky AstrophysicsCentre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysicswww.caastro.org

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 line @ Z=6-13 80 - 230 MHz … to 320 MHz Statistical Detection throughPower 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 line @ Z=6-13 80 - 230 MHz … to 320 MHz

Location of MWA

Australia’s SKA site

(infrastructure, etc)

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.



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: 41173 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 degbetweennulls

HPBW~ 30 deg

Small D => Large Field of ViewField of View

Virgo A 3C273

Jan 2010

Small D => Large Field of ViewField of View

Aerial Photo of “Small N”“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 A115 MhzJan 2010

Hydra A121 MhzChris WilliamsSep 2010

Pictor A

Parkes Catalog

Pictor A

Parkes Catalog

MWA Sources

32T Image114 MHz

21 57 05.8-69 41 22

UV coverage~10 x 2min

over wide HA range

Centaurus A

Centaurus A

CenA

Left: MWA contours on ACTA+PKS image

Right:MWA 115MHz image

The Sun with MWAComparison with X-ray observations

Solar Radio Bursts 170-200 MHz Oberoi, Matthews, et al

Grid of Radio Spectraacross theface of the Sun

Oberoi, Matthews, et al

Oberoi, Matthews, et alInstantaneous 32T uv-coverage

Ord, Mitchell & Greenhill“2PiP”

baseband recording system

Vela Pulsar

Ord, Mitchell & Greenhill“2PiP”

baseband recording system

MWA EoR Target FieldsChris Williams, MIT

MWA FutureAugust 2011 - lay in the infrastructureDecember 2011 - lay tiles - populate CSIRO facility bldg

(with correlator/RTS hardware)

February 2012 - place receiversJune 2012 - 128T hardware installed - commissioning phase

Contrast between Tb(Moon) and Tb(Sky)

Tb(Sky)

Non-thermal + EoR,etc

Tb(Moon)

Thermal ~B.B.

Experiment:

Tb = Tb(moon) - Tb(sky)

TbTb

BB spectrum: smooth &known

NotSmooth

!?

Recent Data Sets…

LOFAR … several long observations at Full Moon Nov, Dec, Jan, …(?)

MWA… few hours near Full Moon, Sept.



BenMcKinley,ANU

Moon Field - 83 MHz



Moon Field - 156 MHz



Moon Field - 105 MHz Day 1



Moon Field - 105 MHz Day 2



80 100 120 140 160 MHz

Tb

= Tb(moon) - Tb(sky)











Documents

Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics MWA Project: Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics Centre of Excellence for All-sky