Australian SKA Pathfinder: A High-Dynamic Range Wide-Field of View Survey Telescope

David R Deboer,John D O'Sullivan,Antony E Schinckel,Ilana J Feain,Michelle C Storey,Brian J Boyle,Aaron Chippendale,Russell G Gough,Michael J Kesteven,Ron J Beresford,Tim J Cornwell,Stuart G Hay,John D Bunton,Grant A Hampson,Tony W Sweetnam,Colin E Jacka,Simon Johnston,Carole A Jackson,Lewis Ball

doi:10.1109/jproc.2009.2016516

David R Deboer, John D O'Sullivan + Show 17 more

https://doi.org/10.1109/jproc.2009.2016516

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Abstract

The Australia SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a new telescope under development as a world-class high-dynamic-range wide-field-of-view survey instrument. It will utilize focal plane phased array feeds on the 36 12-m antennas that will compose the array. The large amounts of data present a huge computing challenge, and ASKAP will store data products in an archive after near real-time pipeline processing. This powerful instrument will be deployed at a new radio-quiet observatory, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the midwest region of Western Australia, to enable sensitive surveys of the entire sky to address some of the big questions in contemporary physics. As a pathfinder for the SKA, ASKAP will demonstrate field of view enhancement and computing/processing technology as well as the operation of a large-scale radio array in a remote and radio-quiet region of Australia.

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