The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder: Performance of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array

Understand

We describe the performance of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA), the prototype for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope ASKAP.

• BETA is the first aperture synthesis radio telescope to use phased array feed technology, giving it the ability to electronically form up to nine dual-polarization beams.
• We report the methods developed for forming and measuring the beams, and the adaptations that have been made to the traditional calibration and imaging procedures in order to allow BETA to function as a multi-beam aperture synthesis telescope.
• We describe the commissioning of the instrument and present details of BETA's performance: sensitivity, beam characteristics, polarimetric properties and image quality.