Status and capabilities of the Australian LBA
Phil Diamond
Chief, Astronomy & Space Science
Overview
• Overview of the LBA
• Recent usage
• Recent developments
• eVLBI progress
• ATNF user affiliations
• Looking ahead
The Long Baseline Array (LBA)
• Operated as a National Facility by CSIRO, in close
cooperation with Uni. of Tasmania & Curtin Uni.
• Core elements: ATCA (5x22m), Mopra (22m),
Parkes (64m), Ceduna (30m), Hobart (26m)
• + Tidbinbilla (70m & 34m), Hart (26m), TIGO (6m),
O’Higgins (9m), Warkworth (12m), … + ASKAP
• Traditionally 3 x ~1 week sessions per year, evolving
toward more frequent, shorter sessions
• Observations in the 20, 13, 6, 3, 1cm bands
• Max. bit-rate 1Gbps (ATNF), 512Mbps (elsewhere)
• Disk-based recorders (with most data later streamed
to correlator) or/and eVLBI on a subset of the array
• DiFX software correlator (Deller et al. 2007, 2011)
Radio Telescopes in Australia
x Katherine
x ASKAP
x Yarragadee
x New Norcia
x
The LBA in 2010
• Six sessions
• March, May, July, October, November, December
• A total of 24 days
• 34 observations
• 3x22GHz, 16x8.4GHz, 8x6.7GHz, 3x2.3GHz, 4x1.4GHz
• 15 projects -- led by 14 different PIs
• 7 from Australia and 7 from overseas
• ~5% test and development time
• The LBA is oversubscribed: about 2/3 of
proposals are allocated some observing time
• Separate Parkes & Hobart (and new AuScope
3x12m array) participation in IVS
Observing time (in hrs) by year and band
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
20cm
36
37
107
142
58
65
44
13cm
64
44
54
91
51
11
37
5/6cm
22
60
42
14
65
95
88
3cm
98
192
127
99
226
168
290
1cm
24
0
12
21
105
57
60
total
244
333
341
366
505
396
519
Recent LBA publications
• First VLBI Detection of the Radio Remnant of Supernova 1987A: Evidence for
Small-scale Features
(Ng et al. 2011 ApJL in press, arXiv:1012.5092)
• The LBA Calibrator Survey of southern compact extragalactic radio sources LCS1
(Petrov et al. 2011 PASA in press, arXiv:1012.2607)
• Evolution of the Parsec-scale Structure of PKS 1934-638 Revisited: First
Science with the ASKAP and New Zealand Telescopes
(Tzioumis et al. 2010 AJ 140, 1506)
• TANAMI: tracking active galactic nuclei with austral milliarcsecond
interferometry . I. First-epoch 8.4 GHz images
(Ojha et al. 2010 A&A 519, A45)
• LBA observations of the maser cluster OH 330.953-0.182
(Caswell et al. 2010 MNRAS 402, 2649)
• Implications of a VLBI Distance to the Double Pulsar J0737-3039A/B
(Deller et al. 2009 Science 323, 1327)
• Parsec-Scale Shocks in the Kiloparsec-Scale Jet of Centaurus A
(Tingay & Lenc 2009 AJ 138, 808)
eVLBI – Gbps links between existing ATNF sites
ATCA
Mopra
To Seattle 10 Gbps
Parkes
Sydney
eVLBI Current Status
• Up to 1Gbps between At-Mp-Pa is available
• Correlate on a computer cluster at Narrabri
• 128 Mbps to Hobart, and improvement in connection
across Bass Strait to 1 Gbps expected in Q1 this
year
• Successful eVLBI demonstrations with Shanghai,
Kashima, JIVE, and HartRAO at 512Mbps
• 512Mbps link to Warkworth (NZ) now available
• Participation in EXPReS and NEXPReS
• 9th eVLBI Workshop held in Perth, Oct 2010
(see http://www.icrar.org/news/pastevents/e-vlbi2010)
ASKAP at the Murchison Radio Observatory
Jan 2010
5 Sept/Oct 2010
Antennas
36 x 12m, three-axis design
Max baseline
8 km
Frequency
700–1800 MHz
ASKAP operational
FOV
30 deg2
in Q2 2013
Bandwidth
300 MHz
Channels
16k
PAF
10x10x2
Tsys
~35 K
Six element test array (BETA) in 2011
ASKAP + Ww
First fringes at 20cm
between LBA and first
ASKAP antenna and
Warkworth 12m in New
Zealand in April/May
2010.
Observations made
of Cen A and
PKS 1934-638.
Ww to formally join LBA
for observations at 1.4,
2.3 and 8.4 GHz.
MRO
MRO
Ceduna
Hobart
Parkes
The Expanding LBA
ATCA
Tidbinbilla
Warkworth
User affiliation by time allocated, 2005 - 2009
PI Affiliation
ATCA
Parkes
Mopra
ATNF
41%
38%
12%
Non-ATNF
Australian
24%
16%
40%
Overseas
35%
46%
48%
All
investigators
ATCA
Parkes
Mopra
ATNF
32%
26%
12%
Non-ATNF
Australian
25%
24%
25%
Overseas
43%
50%
63%
Future challenges & opportunities
• LBA data to be added to ATOA (on-line archive) this year
• Hydrogen Maser on order for ASKAP
• Addition of 20cm band to Ceduna planned
• The LBA DASs will soon need replacing
• Opportunities for collaboration with VLBA…
• cumvlbaobs.txt file indicates VLBA observes sources with dec < 0
for ~21% of time
• Best overlap with MK, OV, KP, PT, LA, FD
• …and EAVN and AuScope and space VLBI
• New 34m antennas funded for Tidbinbilla
• Improved eVLBI access expected
• for Hobart, Warkworth, and possibly Tid, but unlikely for Ceduna
More information
• Next proposal deadlines
• June 15 and Dec 15
• Information about the LBA
• www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi
• Sensitivity calculator
• www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/calculator_2009
• LBA data into on-line archive
• atoa.atnf.csiro.au (coming soon)
CSIRO/ATNF
Phil Diamond
Chief, Astronomy & Space Science, CSIRO
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.atnf.csiro.au
Thank you
Contact Us
Phone: 1300 363 400 or +61 3 9545 2176
Email: [email protected] Web: www.csiro.au