The First Station of the Long Wavelength Array

Understand

The Long Wavelength Array (LWA) will be a new multi-purpose radio telescope operating in the frequency range 10-88 MHz.

• Upon completion, LWA will consist of 53 phased array "stations" distributed over a region about 400 km in diameter in the state of New Mexico.
• Each station will consist of 256 pairs of dipole-type antennas whose signals are formed into beams, with outputs transported to a central location for high-resolution aperture synthesis imaging.
• The resulting image sensitivity is estimated to be a few mJy (5 sigma, 8 MHz, 2 polarizations, 1 hr, zenith) in 20-80 MHz; with resolution and field of view of (8", 8 deg) and (2",2 deg) at 20 MHz and 80 MHz, respectively.