Progress through Photos

This webpage is devoted to Progress through Photos; as the construction of the LWDA test station at the VLA develops and sites for other LWA stations are explored, we will replace older photos with newer ones. Additional photos may be found on the LWA Wiki

• Long Wavelength Array
  • LWA Executive Project Director hired
  • LWA Site Testing
    • First overnight RFI testing
    • First RFI testing of potential sites
• Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array (LWDA)
  • Welcome to the Construction site
  • LWDA Interferometer
  • Specmaster Data website
  • Constructing the LWDA

Long Wavelength Array

LWA Executive Project Director hired.

Dr. Lee J. Rickard was hired at UNM in April 2007 in the position of Executive Project Director for the Long Wavelength Array (LWA). Lee J. was formerly at the Naval Research Lab, and is a well respected scientist who has published in both ionospheric and astronomical journals. Lee J. will be establishing the LWA Project Office on South Campus at UNM.

The two LWA Directors - Left: Lee J. Rickard, Executive Project Director and Right: Greg Taylor, Scientific Director - at a party celebrating Lee J.'s arrival.

Site Testing for LWA Stations

First overnight RFI testing

The first overnight RFI testing at potential LWA stations took place at the VLA North Arm and Magdelena sites during June 25-27, 2007.

"Campsite" just off the North Arm of the VLA includes a tent, one of the Big Blade antennas plus the new trailer - June 25, 2007.

As a member of the team to select sites for the LWA stations, UNM graduate student Frank Schinzel is reviewing maps while data on Radio Frequency Interference are being recorded by computer inside the trailer at a location in the northern part of the Plains of St.Augustine in Socorro County. The signals are picked up by the blade antenna in the front right of the picture.

First RFI Testing of potential sites

Testing for radio interference at potential sites for other LWA stations began in December 2006.

Testing at the Twin Peaks site - located north of US 60 and west of the North arm of the VLA. U-Haul truck with test equipment, big blade antenna infront and power supply equal red item in field to the right. December 15, 2006

Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array LWDA

Welcome to the Construction site

The LWDA is a test bed for the development of the LWA - it is located on the VLA site.

LWDA Interferometer

During the week of May 14, 2007 an LWA team working with Bill Erickson set up an outlier antenna to work with the LWDA as an interferometer. The outlier is the second of the Big Blade antennas currently at the LWDA site (aka BB2) and is located approximately 300 meters due East of the 16 element LWDA. The interferometer allows us to achieve high Signal-to-Noise measurements on many known discrete radio sources. In turn, that allows us to constrain technical characteristics of the LWDA more accurately than previously possible, including accurate flux and phase calibration. The interferometer also brings a new operational mode for targeted source observations, in addition to the current all-sky monitoring and phased array beam-forming modes of the LWDA alone. The LWDA and outlier are remotely configurable between various modes, including with multiple beams, and a number of innovative science programs are being considered to take advantage of these capabilities.

Landscape photo showing the approximate 300 m separation between Big Blade 2 (BB2 - on the left) and the 16 element LWDA (on the right).

SINE and COSINE interferometer fringes on the bright radio source Cas A at 74 MHz. The operational mode employed was a tracking two element interferometer between the outlier Big Blade antenna (BB2) and the phased array LWDA. Each point represents 1 second of data at 1.6 MHz instantaneous bandwidth.

The Specmaster Data website lets you view Daily Dynamic Spectra and learn about special events from Big Blade at the LWDA site.

Commissioning observations made in October 2006 by the Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array (LWDA) highlight its all sky imaging capability. This 24 hour movie (also available in mpg format) is made at a frequency of 73.8 MHz and shows the full sky as visible from the LWDA site in New Mexico. As the sky rotates, emission from the bright sources Cassiopeia A, Cygnus A, and the Sun, as well as the bright regions of the Galactic Plane, are all clearly visible. The Galactic Center region is marked by the position of the Sagittarius A complex. This movie was made by Tracy Clarke (NRL/Interferometrics Inc) using AIPS to process the observations from the LWDA.

During second half of October 2006 all the hardware was installed at the site, including both polarizations and digital receivers for all the dipoles. Careful phase calibrations were performed and these movies demonstrate how successful they were. Congratulations to all who made this possible.

Constructing the LWDA

LWDA site - 16 dipoles and electronics trailer (right back) with VLA antennas in the background as photographed in early August 2006.

New large blade antenna for testing (photo - August 2006).

The first results are displayed in power point presentations at URSI and AAS in January 2006.

Construction of the LWDA began at the VLA site during the Autumn 2005.

LWA Contact Information:
Greg Taylor - gbtaylor@unm.edu - 505-277-5238
Patricia Henning - henning@astro.phys.unm.edu - 505-277-3166
Frank Gilfeather - gilfeath@unm.edu - 505-272-7042 or 505-269-0346 (cell)
University of New Mexico • Albuquerque, NM 87131
Web Administrator (Hélène Dickel) Email: h-dickel@phys.unm.edu