| Author(s) and Co-Author(s) with Affiliation: Krishnakumar M. A.(Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR, Ooty - 643001, India), Abdul Khader Pattewale(Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR, Ooty - 643001, India), Abhishek Prasad(Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR, Ooty - 643001, India), P. Praveen(Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR, Ooty - 643001, India), Sameer R Bharadwaj(Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR, Ooty - 643001, India), S. J. Senthil Kumar(Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR, Ooty - 643001, India), P. Sriram(Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR, Ooty - 643001, India), Ajit Kumar(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), B. S. Patil(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), Manish Patil(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), Pravin Raybole(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), S. D. Patil(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), Shailendra Bagde(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), S. Sureshkumar(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), Arun Kumar Naidu(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), Divya Oberoi(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), Visweshwar Ram Marthi(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007), Yashwant Gupta(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007) |
| Abstract: The Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) is one of the largest steerable radio telescopes in the world, with an effective collecting area of approximately 9,000 m², operating at 326.5 MHz with a bandwidth of 16 MHz. It is capable of tracking a celestial radio source continuously for about 9.5 hours. Over the past ~55 years, the ORT has produced a wealth of important scientific results in diverse areas such as cosmology, solar wind studies, and pulsar astronomy. In recent years, ORT’s sensitivity had degraded due to a variety of technical issues. A concerted effort was therefore undertaken to restore the system to its full performance. In this talk, we will briefly discuss the major technical interventions that enabled the recovery of the telescope’s sensitivity, along with recent scientific results in areas such as studies of space weather using Interplanetary Scintillation, pulsar studies, and VLBI. We will also highlight the ongoing upgrades to the ORT, which will increase the observing bandwidth to approximately 40 MHz and provide additional flexibility in processing signals from individual (sub)elements of the array. These enhancements will significantly expand ORT's capabilities, enabling new areas of science such as studies of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and Long-Period Transients (LPTs), in addition to the regular science programs for which the ORT is routinely used. |
