Journal article
Real-Time Calibration of the Murchison Widefield Array
Daniel A Mitchell, Lincoln J Greenhill, Randall B Wayth, Robert J Sault, Colin J Lonsdale, Roger J Cappallo, Miguel F Morales, Stephen M Ord
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING | IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC | Published : 2008
Abstract
The interferometric technique known as peeling addresses many of the challenges faced when observing with low-frequency radio arrays, and is a promising tool for the associated calibration systems. We investigate a real-time peeling implementation for next-generation radio interferometers such as the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The MWA is being built in Australia and will observe the radio sky between 80 and 300 MHz. The data rate produced by the correlator is just over 19 GB/s (a few peta-bytes/day). It is impractical to store data generated at this rate, and software is currently being developed to calibrate and form images in real time. The software will run on-site on a high-through..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the international MWA collaboration for its continued input and support of this work. They would also like to acknowledge the collaboration of the Initiative in Innovative Computing at Harvard, and thank them for use of their high performance computing facilities.