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Paper: Towards the Long Wavelength Array
Volume: 395, Frontiers of Astrophysics: A Celebration of NRAO's 50th Anniversary
Page: 368
Authors: Kassim, N.E.; Erickson, W.C.
Abstract: Nearly three decades ago, the Very Large Array (VLA) opened the cm-wavelength radio sky to high-dynamic range imaging. By developing and exploiting new techniques to mitigate ionospheric phase fluctuations, the VLA 74MHz system is providing the first sub-arcminute resolution view of the meter-wavelength radio universe. This technical innovation has inspired an emerging suite of much more powerful low-frequency instruments, including the Long Wavelength Array (LWA). The LWA, with its great collecting area (approaching one square kilometer at 20 MHz) and long baselines (up to 400 km), will surpass, by up to 2–3 orders of magnitude, the imaging power of any previous low-frequency interferometer.

LWA science goals include Cosmic Evolution, the Acceleration of Relativistic Particles, Plasma Astrophysics, and Ionospheric & Space Weather Science. Because it will explore one of the last and most poorly investigated regions of the spectrum, the potential for unexpected new discoveries is high. For more on the LWA, see http://lwa.unm.edu.

The LWA project is led by the University of New Mexico, and includes the Naval Research Laboratory, Applied Research Laboratories of U. Texas, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Virginia Tech, and U. Iowa, with cooperation from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

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