The aperture array verification system 1 : system overview and early commissioning results

The design and development process for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope’s Low Frequency Aperture Array component was progressed during the SKA pre-construction phase by an international consortium, with the goal of meeting requirements for a critical design review. As part of the development process a full-sized prototype SKA Low ‘station’ was deployed – the Aperture Array Verification System 1 (AAVS1). We provide a system overview and describe the commissioning results of AAVS1, which is a low frequency radio telescope with 256 dual-polarisation log-periodic dipole antennas working as a phased-array. A detailed system description is provided, including an in-depth overview of relevant sub-systems, ranging from hardware, firmware/software, calibration and control sub-systems. Early commissioning results cover initial bootstrapping, array calibration, stability testing, beamforming and on-sky sensitivity validation. Lessons learned are presented, as well as future developments.peer-reviewe

First results from AAVS 0.5: A prototype array for next-generation radio astronomy

This paper provides an overview of the Aperture Array Verification System 0.5 (AAVS 0.5), co-located and operated in conjunction with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) near the Australian SKA core site. AAVS 0.5 is based on log-periodic antennas of a type potentially useful in next-generation low-frequency arrays such as SKA-low. We report on our progress by discussing results obtained thus far as well as test plans for the near future. A number of lessons learned will be presented, demonstrating that hands-on experience constitutes an essential knowledge-base in the pre-construction phase of a radio-telescope such as the SKA

The SKAl-Low Telescope: The Station Design and Prototyping

© 2018 International Union of Radio Science URSI. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) [1] telescope consists in its first phase of two arrays, a dish array to be constructed in South Africa and a low frequency aperture array to be constructed in Western Australia. The aperture array, SKAI-Low, will consist of 512 stations, each with 256 wide bandwidth log periodic antennas. The frequency range of SKAI-Low is 50 to 350 MHz. The Low Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA) consortium is tasked to design the station, the infrastructure around them and the station signal processing

The Aperture Array Verification System 1: System overview and early commissioning results

The design and development process for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope’s Low Frequency Aperture Array component was progressed during the SKA pre-construction phase by an international consortium, with the goal of meeting requirements for a critical design review. As part of the development process a full-sized prototype SKA Low ‘station’ was deployed – the Aperture Array Verification System 1 (AAVS1). We provide a system overview and describe the commissioning results of AAVS1, which is a low frequency radio telescope with 256 dual-polarisation log-periodic dipole antennas working as a phased array. A detailed system description is provided, including an in-depth overview of relevant sub-systems, ranging from hardware, firmware, software, calibration, and control sub-systems. Early commissioning results cover initial bootstrapping, array calibration, stability testing, beam-forming, and on-sky sensitivity validation. Lessons learned are presented, along with future developments

The low frequency receivers for SKA 1-low: Design and verification

© 2017 URSI. The initial phase of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) [1] is represented by a -10% instrument and construction should start in 2018. SKA 1-Low, a sparse Aperture Array (AA) covering the frequency range 50 to 350 MHz, will be part of this. This instrument will consist of 512 stations, each hosting 256 antennas creating a total of 131,072 antennas. A first verification system towards SKA 1-Low, Aperture Array Verification System 1 (AAVSl), is being deployed and validated in 2017