Abstract

The Murchison Widefield Array is a low frequency (80 – 300 MHz) SKA Precursor, comprising 128 aperture array elements (known as tiles) distributed over an area of 3 km diameter. The MWA is located at the extraordinarily radio quiet Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory in the mid-west of Western Australia, the selected home for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 SKA low frequency arrays. The MWA science goals include: 1) detection of fluctuations in the brightness temperature of the diffuse redshifted 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen from the epoch of reionisation; 2) studies of Galactic and extragalactic processes based on deep, confusion-limited surveys of the full sky visible to the array; 3) time domain astrophysics through exploration of the variable radio sky; and 4) solar imaging and characterisation of the heliosphere and ionosphere via propagation effects on background radio source emission. This paper concentrates on the capabilities of the MWA for solar science and summarises some of the solar science results to date, in advance of the initial operation of the final instrument in 2013.

Details

Title
The Murchison Widefield Array: solar science with the low frequency SKA Precursor
Author
Tingay, S J 1 ; Oberoi, D 2 ; Cairns, I 3 ; Donea, A 4 ; Duffin, R 5 ; Arcus, W 5 ; Bernardi, G 6 ; Bowman, J D 7 ; Briggs, F 8 ; Bunton, J D 9 ; Cappallo, R J 10 ; Corey, B E 10 ; Deshpande, A 11 ; deSouza, L 9 ; Emrich, D 5 ; Gaensler, B M 12 ; Goeke, R 13 ; Greenhill, L J 6 ; Hazelton, B J 14 ; Herne, D 5 ; Hewitt, J N 13 ; Johnston-Hollitt, M 15 ; Kaplan, D L 16 ; Kasper, J C 6 ; Kennewell, J A 5 ; Kincaid, B B 10 ; Koenig, R 9 ; Kratzenberg, E 10 ; Lonsdale, C J 10 ; Lynch, M J 5 ; McWhirter, S R 10 ; Mitchell, D A 17 ; Morales, M F 14 ; Morgan, E 13 ; Ord, S M 5 ; Pathikulangara, J 9 ; Prabu, T 11 ; Remillard, R A 13 ; Rogers, A E E 10 ; Roshi, A 11 ; Salah, J E 10 ; Sault, R J 18 ; Udaya-Shankar, N 11 ; Srivani, K S 11 ; Stevens, J 9 ; Subrahmanyan, R 19 ; Waterson, M 5 ; Wayth, R B 20 ; Webster, R L 21 ; Whitney, A R 10 ; Williams, A 22 ; Williams, C L 13 ; Wyithe, J S B 21 

 ICRAR – Curtin University, Perth, Australia; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Cambridge, MA, USA 
 National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune, India 
 The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia 
 Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 
 ICRAR – Curtin University, Perth, Australia 
 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA 
 Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA 
 The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Australia 
 CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia 
10  MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, MA, USA 
11  Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India 
12  Sydney Institute for Astronomy, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Australia 
13  MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Cambridge, MA, USA 
14  University of Washington, Seattle, USA 
15  School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand 
16  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA 
17  ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Australia; The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia 
18  The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia 
19  Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India; ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Australia 
20  ICRAR – Curtin University, Perth, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Australia 
21  The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Australia 
22  ICRAR – University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia 
Publication year
2013
Publication date
Jun 2013
Publisher
IOP Publishing
ISSN
17426588
e-ISSN
17426596
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2577486526
Copyright
© 2013. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.