2016/03/09 by T. E. Clarke, N. E. Kassim, Clarke, Tracy +9 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #GNSS positioning and interference #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1603.03080
openalex publication_date 2016/03/09 · openalex created_date 2022/08/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the National Radio Astronomy\nObservatory (NRAO) have collaborated to develop, install, and commission a new\ncommensal system on the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The VLA Low Band\nIonospheric and Transient Experiment (VLITE) makes use of dedicated samplers\nand fibers to tap the signal from 10 VLA low band receivers and correlate those\nthrough a real-time DiFX correlator. VLITE allows for the simultaneous use of\nthe VLA to observe primary science using the higher frequencies receivers (1-50\nGHz) through the NRAO WIDAR correlator and lower frequencies through the DiFX\ncorrelator. VLITE operates during nearly all observing programs and provides 64\nMHz of bandwidth centered at 352 MHz. The operation of VLITE requires no\nadditional resources from the VLA system running the primary science and\nproduces an ad-hoc sky survey. The commensal system greatly expands the\ncapabilities of the VLA through value-added PI science, stand-alone\nastrophysics, the opening of a new window on transient searches, and\nserendipity. In the first year of operation we have recorded more than 6300\nhours spread across the sky. We present an overview of the VLITE program,\ndiscuss the sky coverage and depth obtained during the first year of operation,\nand briefly outline the astrophysics and transients programs.\n