This is a collaborative award to the University of New Mexico and Virginia Tech to operate the first station of the Long Wavelength Array (LWA1). LWA1 was completed in April 2011 and is currently an operating radio observatory, performing observations resulting from its first call for proposals in addition to a continuing program of commissioning and characterization. The instrument consists of 256 dual-polarization dipoles, which are digitized and combined into beams. Four independently-steerable dual-polarization beams are available, each with two windows of 16 MHz bandwidth that can be independently tuned to any frequency between 10 MHz and 88 MHz.
LWA1 provides unique new capabilities for Galactic science, pulsar science, solar and planetary science, space weather, cosmology, and searches for astrophysical transients. Results from the LWA1 will detect or severely constrain the presence of hot Jupiters within 50 parsecs of Earth. The LWA1 will provide high resolution in frequency and in time to examine phenomena such as solar bursts, giant pulses from the Crab Pulsar, and pulsars over a 4:1 frequency range that includes the poorly-understood turnover and steep-spectrum regimes. The Epoch of Reionization will be explored via an NSF-supported project called LEDA.
In the area of broader impacts, LWA1 will develop engineering talent required for future instruments such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), will increase the participation of Hispanics in astronomy, and will provide opportunities for the direct involvement of K-12 students in observing with no impact on its primary science mission. LWA1 is a university-developed instrument in which students and post-docs have played, and should continue to play, an essential role as developers and users.
