Engineering and Science Highlights of the KAT-7 Radio Telescope
Abstract
The construction of the KAT-7 array in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape in South Africa was intended primarily as an engineering prototype for technologies and techniques applicable to the MeerKAT telescope. This paper looks at the main engineering and scien- tific highlights from this effort, and discusses their applicability to both MeerKAT and other next-generation radio telescopes. In particular we found that the composite dish surface works well, but it becomes complicated to fabricate for a dish lacking circular symmetry; the Stir- ling cycle cryogenic system with ion pump to achieve vacuum works but demands much higher maintenance than an equivalent Gifford-McMahon cycle system; the ROACH (Recon- figurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware)-based correlator with SPEAD (Stream- ing Protocol for Exchanging Astronomical Data) protocol data transfer works very well and KATCP (Karoo Array Telescope Control Protocol) control protocol has proven very flexible and convenient. KAT-7 has also been used for scientific observations where it has a niche in mapping low surface-brightness continuum sources, some extended HI halos and OH masers in star-forming regions. It can also be used to monitor continuum source variability, observe pulsars, and make VLBI observations
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1606.02929,
title = {Engineering and Science Highlights of the KAT-7 Radio Telescope},
author = {A. R. Foley and T. Alberts and R P. Armstrong and A. Barta and E. F. Bauermeister and H. Bester and S. Blose and R. S. Booth and D. H. Botha and S. J. Buchner and C. Carignan and T. Cheetham and K. Cloete and G. Coreejes and R. C. Crida and S. D. Cross and F. Curtolo and A. Dikgale and M. S. de Villiers and L. J. du Toit and S. W. P. Esterhuyse and B. Fanaroff and R. P. Fender and M. Fijalkowski and D. Fourie and B. Frank and D. George and P. Gibbs and S. Goedhart and J. Grobbelaar and S. C. Gumede and P. Herselman and K. M. Hess and N. Hoek and J. Horrell and J. L. Jonas and J. D. B. Jordaan and R. Julie and F. Kapp and P. Kotzé and T. Kusel and A. Langman and R. Lehmensiek and D. Liebenberg and I. J. V. Liebenberg and A. Loots and R. T. Lord and D. M. Lucero and J. Ludick and P. Macfarlane and M. Madlavana and L. Magnus and C. Magozore and J. A. Malan and J. R. Manley and L. Marais and N. Marais and S. J. Marais and M. Maree and A. Martens and O. Mokone and V. Moss and S. Mthembu and W. New and G. D. Nicholson and P. C. van Niekerk and N. Oozeer and S. S. Passmoor and A. Peens-Hough and A. B. Pińska and P. Prozesky and S. Rajan and S. Ratcliffe and R. Renil and L. L. Richter and D. Rosekrans and A. Rust and A. C. Schröder and L. C. Schwardt and S. Seranyane and M. Serylak and D. S. Shepherd and R. Siebrits and L. Sofeya and R. Spann and R. Springbok and P. S. Swart and Venkatasubramani L. Thondikulam and I. P. Theron and A. Tiplady and O. Toruvanda and S. Tshongweni and L. van den Heever and C. van der Merwe and R. van Rooyen and S. Wakhaba and A. L. Walker and M. Welz and L. Williams and M. Wolleben and P. A. Woudt and N. J. Young and J. T. L. Zwart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.02929},
year = {2016}
}