The Murchison Widefield Array: solar science with the low frequency SKA Precursor

Eclipse on the Coral Sea: Cycle 24 Ascending

物理学;天文学

Tingay, S.J.^1,13 ; Oberoi, D.^2 ; Cairns, I.^3 ; Donea, A.^4 ; Duffin, R.^1 ; Arcus, W.^1 ; Bernardi, G.^5 ; Bowman, J.D.^6 ; Briggs, F.^7,12 ; Bunton, J.D.^8 ; Cappallo, R.J.^9 ; Corey, B.E.^9 ; Deshpande, A.^10 ; Desouza, L.^8 ; Emrich, D.^1 ; Gaensler, B.M.^11,12 ; Goeke, R.^13 ; Greenhill, L.J.^5 ; Hazelton, B.J.^14 ; Herne, D.^1 ; Hewitt, J.N.^13 ; Johnston-Hollitt, M.^15 ; Kaplan, D.L.^16 ; Kasper, J.C.^5 ; Kennewell, J.A.^1 ; Kincaid, B.B.^9 ; Koenig, R.^8 ; Kratzenberg, E.^9 ; Lonsdale, C.J.^9 ; Lynch, M.J.^1 ; McWhirter, S.R.^9 ; Mitchell, D.A.^12,17 ; Morales, M.F.^14 ; Morgan, E.^13 ; Ord, S.M.^1 ; Pathikulangara, J.^8 ; Prabu, T.^10 ; Remillard, R.A.^13 ; Rogers, A.E.E.^9 ; Roshi, A.^10 ; Salah, J.E.^9 ; Sault, R.J.^17 ; Udaya-Shankar, N.^10 ; Srivani, K.S.^10 ; Stevens, J.^8 ; Subrahmanyan, R.^10,12 ; Waterson, M.^1 ; Wayth, R.B.^1,12 ; Webster, R.L.^12,17 ; Whitney, A.R.^9 ; Williams, A.^18 ; Williams, C.L.^13 ; Wyithe, J.S.B.^12,17

ICRAR-Curtin University, Perth, Australia^1

National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune, India^2

University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia^3

Monash University, Melbourne, Australia^4

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, United States^5

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States^6

Australian National University, Canberra, Australia^7

CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia^8

MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, MA, United States

(10) Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India

(11) Sydney Institute for Astronomy, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

(12) ARC, Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Australia

(13) MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Cambridge, MA, United States

(14) University of Washington, Seattle, United States

(15) School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

(16) University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States

(17) University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

(18) ICRAR-University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia^9

关键词: Aperture arrays;    Brightness temperatures;    Initial operation;    Low frequency arrays;    Neutral hydrogen;    Propagation effect;    Radio sources;    Western Australia;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/440/1/012033/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/440/1/012033

学科分类：天文学(综合)

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The Murchison Widefield Array is a low frequency (80-300 MHz) SKA Precursor, comprising 128 aperture array elements (known as tiles) distributed over an area of 3 km diameter. The MWA is located at the extraordinarily radio quiet Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory in the mid-west of Western Australia, the selected home for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 SKA low frequency arrays. The MWA science goals include: 1) detection of fluctuations in the brightness temperature of the diffuse redshifted 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen from the epoch of reionisation; 2) studies of Galactic and extragalactic processes based on deep, confusion-limited surveys of the full sky visible to the array; 3) time domain astrophysics through exploration of the variable radio sky; and 4) solar imaging and characterisation of the heliosphere and ionosphere via propagation effects on background radio source emission. This paper concentrates on the capabilities of the MWA for solar science and summarises some of the solar science results to date, in advance of the initial operation of the final instrument in 2013.