Profiling the EMBRACE tile beam using GPS satellite carriers

Abstract

Abstract. The L2C carriers of multiple GPS satellites have been used to trace out a nearly complete beam pattern out to 45• away from the main lobe centre for a horizontally mounted single EMBRACE tile. The beam was formed along its bore-sight direction, i.e., staring at the local sky zenith. The result is very close to design specifications although there is evidence for at least one side lobe rising above the achieved noise level. We have also used the older L2 carrier to estimate the system temperature, although an exact figure in addition requires knowledge of the aperture efficiency.

Characterization of a dense aperture array for radio astronomy

“…At the single tile level, the main beam was first seen to agree with expectations for a one metre square phased up array when bore sight drift scans of GPS L2 carriers were conducted in October/November 2009. This result is described in detail in Olofsson et al (2009).…”

“…The two EMBRACE stations began with an initial period of engineering testing on the partially complete arrays (Olofsson et al 2009;Wijnholds et al 2009). EMBRACE@Nançay has been fully operational since 2011 and now performs regularly scheduled astronomical observations, such as pulsar observations and extragalactic spectral line observing (Torchinsky et al 2013(Torchinsky et al , 2015.…”

EMBRACE@Nançay: an ultra wide field of view prototype for the SKA

“…The two EMBRACE stations began with an initial period of engineering testing on the partially complete arrays [2,3]. EMBRACE@Nanc ¸ay has been fully operational since 2011 and now performs regularly scheduled astronomical observations such as pulsar observations and extragalactic spectral line observing [4].…”