LWA - Specifications

Astronomer

The table below lists the specifications of the LWA1 (the first LWA station).

Specification	Details	Comment
Number of stands	257	One outrigger antenna at 300m baseline
Frequency coverage ν	10-88 MHz
Number of beams	4
Number of tunings	2 per beam
Number of polarizations, N_pol	2 per beam per tuning
Bandwidth per beam, B	19.6 MHz max	16 MHz usable due to band edges
Declination range	-30° to 90°
All sky transient mode TBN	1-67 kHz bandwidth	Continuous observing all dipoles
All sky transient mode TBW	78 MHz bandwidth	Periodic bursts observing all dipoles
Spectrometer	See table	Minimum channel width 7.8125 kHz
SEFD	3 kJy	At zenith
Sensitivity S_min	5 Jy	5 sigma, 1 sec, 16MHz, zenith
Confusion noise (zenith)¹	25 Jy/beam	for a 2° beam at 74 MHz, only theoretical estimate

¹ The confusion limit will be reached in about 1 msec using 8 MHz bandwidth. Longer integrations can be achieved for narrower bandwidths.

The table below lists the specifications of the LWA-Sevilleta station.

Specification	Details	Comment
Number of stands	257	One outrigger 500m to the West
Frequency coverage ν	10-88 MHz
Number of beams	2
Number of tunings	2 per beam	Beams are required to have same tunings
Number of polarizations, N_pol	2 per beam per tuning
Bandwidth per beam, B	10 MHz max
Declination range	-30° to 90°
All sky transient mode TBN	1-67 kHz bandwidth	Continuous observing all dipoles
All sky transient mode TBF	20 MHz bandwidth	Approximately 1s dumps every 3 min
Spectrometer	See table	Minimum channel width 7.8125 kHz
SEFD	6 kJy	At zenith
Sensitivity S_min	5 Jy	5 sigma, 1 sec, 16MHz, zenith
Confusion noise (zenith)¹	25 Jy/beam	for a 2° beam at 74 MHz, only theoretical estimate