Apertif: Phased array feeds for the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope: System overview and performance characteristics
Journal article, 2022

We describe the APERture Tile In Focus (Apertif) system, a phased array feed (PAF) upgrade of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope that transforms this telescope into a high-sensitivity, wide-field-of-view L-band imaging and transient survey instrument. Using novel PAF technology, up to 40 partially overlapping beams are formed on the sky simultaneously, significantly increasing the survey speed of the telescope. With this upgraded instrument, an imaging survey covering an area of 2300 deg2 is being performed that will deliver both continuum and spectral line datasets, of which the first data have been publicly released. In addition, a time domain transient and pulsar survey covering 15 000 deg2 is in progress. An overview of the Apertif science drivers, hardware, and software of the upgraded telescope is presented, along with its key performance characteristics.

Instrumentation: interferometers

Telescopes

Surveys

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Published in

Astronomy and Astrophysics

0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)

Vol. 658 art. no A146

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Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)

Other Computer and Information Science

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Software Engineering

Identifiers

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/202141739

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Latest update

9/15/2023