Abstract Details

Name: Harsha Avinash Tanti
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology, Indore
Conference ID: ASI2021_469
Title : Update on the IIT Indore Radio Interferometer (IIRI)
Authors and Co-Authors : Harsha Avinash Tanti(IIT Indore), Dr. Siddharth Malu(IIT Indore), and Dr. Abhirup Datta(IIT Indore)
Abstract Type : Oral
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : We present the first results from the DST-SERB sponsored IIT Indore Radio Interferometer (IIRI) project. Currently, the interferometer consists of four elements and operates at 1.42 GHz with a bandwidth of 110 MHz. The four antennas are 4.5-meter dishes, with wideband feeds (Saje et al. 2017), with a ~ 2.7-degree field-of-view, and operable through an on-site control system with a pointing accuracy of +/- 2 arcmin with tracking capability. Front-end electronics consist of room-temperature low noise amplifiers (LNAs), with a 110 MHz bandwidth bandpass filter. Backend electronics consist of a superheterodyne receiver, which provides an IF centered at 140 MHz, and a bandwidth of 110 MHz. The digital backend consists of an FPGA-based electronics board (with 4 inputs) designed by the CASPER community, which enables reconfigurable hardware design through a visual programming platform. The results from tests of the interferometer, conducted using a broadband noise source, and the sun. The results confirm that the interferometer yields fringes as expected, and can be used to make drift-scan and tracking images of the sky. We aim to improve on the total gain and sensitivity of the receiver systems to enable observations of diffuse emission in the L and C bands. The digital backend produces a 600 MHz bandwidth spectrum and we intend to design and deploy wider bandwidth filters to enable wideband observations in the two bands. We also aim to improve the pointing accuracy to ~ 30 arcsec. This interferometer will mainly be used for academic programs like the M.Sc. (Astronomy) and Ph.D. programs of the Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering, IIT Indore.