North America Array: Implementation of SKA-High, 2020-2030
The decade after 2020 will be focused on a staged construction
of the North America Array, as an implementation
of the high-frequency component of the Square Kilometre
Array (SKA-high). The collecting area will be more modest than a
square kilometer, with a present strawman of approximately 0.15
square kilometers. The detailed cost and plan for the implementation
will be deliverables of the technology development program in 2010-2020;
overall, the plan is expected to consist of the following elements:
- Increase the sensitivity of the core EVLA by a factor of
5, using antenna systems developed by the US SKA Technology Development
Project (TDP) in 2008-2012 and by TDP-II from 2012-2015.
- Add sensitivity equivalent to 2-3 times the EVLA at distances ranging from
the EVLA maximum baseline of 35 km out to a few hundred kilometers. The
staging of this development relative to the development of more collecting
area in the EVLA core will depend on the science drivers as they exist in
the late 2010s; we expect the nature of these science drivers to be
determined by discoveries of the new telescopes of the 2010-2020 decade, such
as JWST, ALMA, and EVLA.
- Enhance the sensitivity on long baselines by
augmenting or replacing the VLBA stations with more collecting area, amounting
to a total sensitivity of 2-3 times the EVLA. The parameters
of these long-baseline stations will depend very strongly on the development
and affordability of wide-bandwidth communication infrastructure in the
next decade(s). The baseline plan will be to construct these stations as
"copies" of the prototype SKA-high station to be fielded in 2016-2019.
Modified on Wednesday, 08-Apr-2009 11:38:27 EDT
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