VLITE is a commensal system capable of continuously accessing 64 MHz from the new 236-492 MHz Low Band system deployed on the VLA.The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and NRAO have successfully collaborated to develop the VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE). The VLITE backend includes dedicated samplers, fiber optics, and a DiFX-based real-time software correlator. VLITE first fringes were obtained on July 17, 2014. Science operations with VLITE commensed November 25, 2014. During the initial phase of operation, VLITE correlated 10 antennas and, in the first year of science operation, VLITE acquired over 6300 hours of data. By harvesting data from the VLA's prime focus, VLITE effectively makes the VLA "two telescopes in one". A 2015 NRL press release describes the instrument and shows sources in a galaxy cluster that were in the VLITE field-of-view from observations of an unrelated low redshift galaxy. In 2016, VLITE's DiFX correlator was modified to allow data recording during on-the-fly (OTF) mapping to provide support to the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), which commenced in September 2017. Also in 2017, VLITE was expanded 16 VLA antennas, more than doubling the number of baselines. The on-going VLITE expansion was discussd in an NRL press release on radio mini-halos. Another VLITE capability currently in development is a fast-transient GPU-based processing system, which is nearing completion. VLITE Data ProductsVLITE data are processed using two separate pipelines:
Data Rights and ArchivingVLITE obsrvations are recorded simultaneously with all VLA observing, with the following exceptions:
Contact InformationIf you are interested in learning more about VLITE including inquiries about collaborations, please contact us directly as follows:
AcknowledgementsBasic research in radio astronomy at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is supported by 6.1 Base Funding. Construction and installation of VLITE was supported by the NRL Sustainment Restoration and Maintenance fund. The VLA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Special thanks are due to Summer Drew (Oviedo HS, FL) for her contributions to this website. Sliders were made using Jssor. Modified on Monday, 16-Oct-2017 13:54:52 MDT |