Title :
The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array
Author :
Wootten, Alwyn ; Thompson, A. Richard
Author_Institution :
Nat. Radio Astron. Obs., Charlottesville, VA, USA
Abstract :
The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an international radio telescope under construction in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. ALMA is situated on a dry site at 5000 m elevation, allowing excellent atmospheric transmission over the instrument wavelength range of 0.3-10 mm. ALMA will consist of two arrays of high-precision antennas. One, of up to 64 12-m-diameter antennas, is reconfigurable in multiple patterns ranging in size from 150 m up to ~ 15 km. A second array is composed of a set of four 12-m and 12 7-m antennas operating in one of two closely packed configurations ~ 50 m in diameter. The instrument will provide both interferometric and total-power astronomical information on atomic, molecular, and ionized gas and dust in the solar system, our galaxy, and the nearby to high-redshift universe. In this paper, we outline the scientific drivers, technical challenges, and planned progress of ALMA.
Keywords :
astronomical observatories; atmospheric optics; radioastronomy; radiotelescopes; submillimetre astronomy; ALMA; Atacama Desert; Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array; atmospheric transmission; atomic gas; dust; galaxy; high-precision antennas; high-redshift universe; ionized gas; molecular gas; northern Chile; radiotelescope; solar system; Antenna arrays; Atmosphere; Europe; Instruments; North America; Observatories; Radio astronomy; Receiving antennas; Satellite broadcasting; Telescopes; Antennas; millimeter astronomy; radio astronomy; submillimeter astronomy;
Journal_Title :
Proceedings of the IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/JPROC.2009.2020572
