LWA1 Design, Commissioning, and First Science Results
by: Steve Ellingson (Virginia Tech)
The LWA1 radio telescope (also known as the first station of the Long Wavelength Array) is a compact array of about 260 dual-polarized dipoles, collocated with the VLA, operating in the 10-88 MHz range (Ellingson et al. 2013, astro-ph/1204.4816). The instrument provides 4 independently-steerable beams using digital true time delay beamforming, providing large instantaneous bandwidth (up to 17 MHz per beam), high intrinsic sensitivity (about 6 kJy zenith system equivalent flux density, or about 5 Jy/beam for 5 sigma in 1 s), and large field of view (about 3-10 degrees, depending on zenith angle and frequency). LWA1 has been operating as an "open skies" radio observatory since Spring 2012, and is currently conducting observations supporting research on pulsars, astrophysical transients, cosmology, space weather, the Sun, Jupiter, and the ionosphere. In this talk I will review the design and capabilities of the instrument, summarize commissioning results, and present an overview of first science results. I will conclude with a summary of findings from our ongoing project to monitor the giant pulses of the Crab Nebula pulsar and a concurrent project to search for transients in the form of single dispersed pulses from other sources.
