KAT-7 射电望远镜的工程与科学亮点
天体物理仪器与方法
2016-06-15 v1
摘要
在南非北开普省卡鲁地区建造 KAT-7 阵列的主要目的，是作为适用于 MeerKAT 望远镜的技术与方法的工程原型。本文审视了这一工作中的主要工程与科学亮点，并讨论了它们对 MeerKAT 及其他下一代射电望远镜的适用性。特别地，我们发现复合碟形表面工作良好，但对于缺乏圆对称性的碟形天线，其制造变得复杂；带有离子泵以实现真空的斯特林循环低温系统虽然可行，但其维护需求远高于等效的 Gifford-McMahon 循环系统；基于 ROACH (Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware) 的相关器与 SPEAD (Streaming Protocol for Exchanging Astronomical Data) 协议数据传输工作得非常好，且 KATCP (Karoo Array Telescope Control Protocol) 控制协议已被证明非常灵活和便利。KAT-7 也被用于科学观测，在测绘低面亮度连续谱源、恒星形成区中某些延展的 HI 晕和 OH 脉泽方面具有独特优势。它还可用于监测连续谱源的变化、观测脉冲星以及进行 VLBI 观测。
引用
@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}
}