The Radio Observatory of ASTRON (The Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy) invites the world-wide community to submit Expressions of Interest to define, prepare and perform large survey programmes with Apertif, the new Phased Array Feed receiver system for the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. The WSRT and Apertif serve as a scientific and technological pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array.
Published by the editorial team, 22 June 2010
The submission of Expressions of Interest by the community is the initial step toward selecting and defining large surveys that will take full advantage of the strengths of the WSRT equipped with Phased Array Feeds.
Apertif will enlarge the instantaneous Field-of-View for twelve of the fourteen 25-metre WSRT dishes to 8 square degrees, increasing the current WSRT Field-of-View by a factor of 30 and the survey speed of the telescope by a factor 20. This enables astronomers to conduct surveys covering large parts of the radio sky while retaining benefit of the high resolution of a radio interferometer.
The call for Expressions of Interest for Apertif surveys can be found here.