KAT-7

For the enzyme and the gene, see KAT7 (gene).

KAT-7, MeerKAT Precursor Array (MPA)

200px KAT-7 in 2014
Organisation	NRF Department of Science and Technology SKA South Africa Project
Location(s)	Northern Cape, South Africa
Coordinates
Altitude	1100 m
Weather	Dry
Wavelength	radio 3 centimetres (1.2 in) to 30 centimetres (12 in)
Built	2010
First light	2009
Telescope style	dish
Diameter	12 m
Collecting area	~2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) in KAT-7
Website	www.ska.ac.za
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KAT-7 is a radio telescope constructed in the Northern Cape of South Africa. Part of the Karoo Array Telescope project, it is the precursor engineering test bed to the larger MeerKAT telescope, but it has become a science instrument in its own right. The construction was completed in 2011 and commissioned in 2012. It also served as a technology demonstrator for South Africa's bid to host the Square Kilometre Array. KAT-7 is the first Radio telescope to be built with a composite reflector and uses a stirling pump for 75 K cryogenic cooling. The telescope was built to test various system for the MeerKAT array, from the ROACH correlators designed and manufactured in Cape Town, now used by various telescopes internationally, to composite construction techniques. With the short baselines the telescope is suited to observing diffuse sources, but will begin VLBI observation in 2013.

Technical Specifications

KAT-7 consist of 7 dishes of 12 metres in diameter each a Prime Focus Reflecting telescope.

MeerKAT supports a wide range of observing modes, including deep continuum, polarisation and spectral line imaging, pulsar timing and transient searches. A range of standard data products are provided, including an imaging pipeline. A number of "data spigots" are also available to support user-provided instrumentation. Significant design and qualification efforts are planned to ensure high reliability in order to achieve low operational cost and high availability.

Key performance parameters

Parameter	Value
Number of antennae	7
Dish diameter	12 m
Minimum baseline	26 m
Maximum baseline	185 m
Frequency Range	1200 MHz - 1950 MHz
Instantaneous Bandwidth	256 MHz
Polarisation	Linear (H + V)
Tsys	< 35 K across the entire frequency band (~30 K average)for all elevation angles > 30 deg
Elevation	2 - 95 degrees

Correlator Modes:

Mode	# Bands	Band Bandwidth	Channel Bandwidth	Available
Wideband	1	256 MHz	390.625 kHz	Yes
8k Wideband	1	256 MHz	48.8 kHz	Yes
HI Spectral Line	1	>= 33.4 MHz	<= 4.8 kHz	~ Oct 2012
OH Spectral Line	1	400/32 = 12.5 MHz	1.5 kHz	~ Jun 2012
OH Spectral Line	1	400/128 = 3.1 MHz	381 Hz	~ Jun 2012

Performance

In April 2010 four of the seven dishes were linked together as an integrated system to produce its first interferometric image of an astronomical object. In Dec 2010, there was a successful detection of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) fringes between the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory's 26 m dish and one of the KAT-7 dishes.

See also

• Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder
• Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory
• List of radio telescopes
• South African Astronomical Observatory for optical astronomy in South Africa
• Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization

References

External video
Creamer Media's Shannon O'Donnell speaks to Engineering News senior contributing editor Keith Campbell about the MeerKAT radio telescope. 24 April 2009

External links

• SKA South Africa
• eXperimental Development Model (XDM) at Hartebeeshoek