LWA1 Specification Summary
The table below lists the specifications of the LWA1 (the first LWA station).
Specification |
Details |
Comment |
|---|---|---|
Frequency ν |
10-88 MHz |
|
Number of beams |
3 for scientific use |
a fourth beam is dedicated to calibration |
Number of tunings |
2 per beam |
|
Number of polarizations, Npol |
2 per beam per tuning |
|
Bandwidth per beam, B |
8 MHz max |
0.4096 MHz min |
Channel width, Δν |
≥ 100 Hz |
1.953 kHz max |
Number of channels |
4096 Max |
Limited to B/Δν =4096 |
Temporal resolution |
0.1 ms or higher |
|
Beam size |
[20 MHz/ν]8° |
|
Sky coverage |
zenith angle z< 74° |
|
Thermal noise (at zenith)1 |
0.02 Jy |
For 1h integration, B=8 MHz, Npol=2 and ν=74 MHz |
Confusion noise (zenith)2 |
25 Jy/beam |
for a 2° beam at 74 MHz |
1 The thermal noise, as well as the confusion noise, will increase at angles away from zenith.
2 The confusion limit will be reached in about 1 msec using 8 MHz bandwidth. Longer integrations can be achieved for narrower bandwidths.