3mm Home Page System Performance Calibration Observing Quick Start System Specs mmATCA Receivers mmATCA Results

Note added on Tuesday 26 May 2009
Kate Brooks will be taking extended leave from 1 July 2009. All the information contained in these pages will be incorporated into the ATCA User Guide. These pages are no longer being maintained and have not been updated since January 2009. Consequently they do not document the many changes made by the new CABB system. Please consult the ATCA User Guide or contact Phil Edwards (Philip.Edwards @ csiro.au) for the latest information.

Five antennas of the Compact Array are now equipped with 3 mm receivers covering the frequency range 85-105 GHz. The calibration and observing strategies specific to 3mm observing are documented on these webpages.

As part of a major upgrade at the Compact Array there will be a six-week shut down from early March until mid-April 2009. During this period the existing array backend and correlator will be permanently removed to allow for the installation of the full CABB systems on all six antennas.

The 2009 APRS semester will be the first to offer the full Compact Array Broadband Backend (CABB) capability. Due to the staged implementation of CABB modes, the 2009 APRS semester for the ATCA will run from mid-April to mid-July ONLY. For 2009 APRS, CABB will be available with a single coarse resolution mode with a bandwidth of 2 GHz and a spectral resolution of 1 MHz, corresponding to 2048 spectral channels. At 100 GHz, 1 MHz spectral resolution is equivalent to 3 km/s velocity resolution.

For further details of CABB planning and progress see the CABB web page.

For 2009 APRS, the array configurations 6A, 1.5A, EW352, H214, H168 and H75 will be offered. Configurations will only be scheduled if there is sufficient proposal demand for them. (For 2009 JULS, the array configurations 6D, 750D, EW352, H214, H168 and H75 will be offered.) Observers planning 3-mm observations in an extended array (H214 or EW352) are encouraged to consider also requesting time in more compact configurations as many 3-mm sources are weak and extended and the longer baselines may not detect all of the emission.

Proposers are reminded that the primary flux density calibrator at 7mm and 3mm is Uranus, which for 2009 APRS will be at a R.A. of 23h45m and declination of -2d30m. To ensure the best flux calibration for your data you will need approximately 30min of observing time in the appropriate LST range for Uranus.

The figure above shows the CABB configuration available from mid April 09 to mid July 09 for the three mmATCA receiver bands. The blue bars correspond to the frequency coverage of each receiver band. The orange bars correspond to the CABB widebands. There are two CABB widebands, each with 2-GHz bandwidth, full stokes and 2048 channels, resulting in 1 MHz velocity resolution.

Any queries should be directed to Millimetre Astronomy Research Scientist Kate Brooks (Kate.Brooks @ csiro.au)