Digital Instrumentation for the Radio Astronomy Community

射电天文学界的数字仪器

• 批准号: 1407804
• 负责人: Dan Werthimer
• 金额: $ 89.6万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1407804&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Digital; Instrumentation; Radio; Astronomy; Community

Radio astronomy has opened up new and unexpected windows on the cosmos for many decades now, and continues to provide the most definitive views of many aspects of the universe. Construction of many new and exciting instruments and telescopes is underway or planned for the near future. The investigators on this proposal have a strong commitment to making cutting-edge radio astronomy instrumentation available to the broadest possible user community at minimal cost and duplication of effort. They have pioneered open-source design of the common elements that many astronomers need, and in so doing have synergized a community spirit and team effort that have gone beyond expectations and helped to fuel the current surge of exciting radio astronomy research. In this project, they will continue that effort with a new generation of the general-purpose electronic hardware that lies at the heart of many radio instruments.The CASPER collaboration represented by this proposal has been extremely successful in delivering open source hardware and software to the wider radio astronomy community, leading to a resurgence in radio astronomy instrumentation development at the university, national observatory, and international level. The associated science return in the last decade has been immense. This proposal would continue this work with delivery of a new generation of digital hardware through a number of new initiatives, including development of the next-generation ROACH processor board used of the kind used at observatories worldwide.This project has wide-ranging broader impacts in enabling improved performance at reduced cost of a wide range of radio astronomical instrumentation. In addition, student involvement is strong, community dissemination of design practices is broad, and there is a clear commitment to stimulation of community cooperation and sharing the excitement of advancing the state of the art of radiofrequency instrumentation.Funding for this project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.

几十年来，射电天文学为宇宙打开了新的、意想不到的窗口，并继续提供宇宙许多方面最明确的观点。 许多令人兴奋的新型仪器和望远镜的建设正在进行或计划在不久的将来进行。 该提案的研究人员坚定地致力于以最低的成本和重复工作向最广泛的用户群体提供尖端的射电天文学仪器。 他们开创了许多天文学家所需的通用元素的开源设计，并在此过程中协同了社区精神和团队努力，超出了预期，并有助于推动当前令人兴奋的射电天文学研究的激增。 在这个项目中，他们将继续努力开发新一代通用电子硬件，该硬件是许多无线电仪器的核心。该提案所代表的 CASPER 合作在向更广泛的射电天文学界，导致大学、国家天文台和国际层面射电天文学仪器开发的复兴。过去十年相关的科学回报是巨大的。该提案将继续这项工作，通过一系列新举措提供新一代数字硬件，包括开发全球天文台使用的下一代 ROACH 处理器板。该项目在以下方面具有广泛的影响：以降低成本的方式提高各种射电天文仪器的性能。 此外，学生的参与度很高，设计实践的社区传播广泛，并且明确致力于刺激社区合作和分享推进射频仪器技术发展水平的兴奋。该项目的资金由NSF 天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器项目。