Allen Telescope Array

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), formerly known as the One Hectare Telescope (1hT), is a radio telescope array dedicated to astronomical observations and a simultaneous search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The array is situated at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Shasta County, 290 miles (470 km) northeast of San Francisco, California.†ATHIXS is an all-sky deep HI extragalactic HI survey. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), formerly known as the One Hectare Telescope (1hT), is a radio telescope array dedicated to astronomical observations and a simultaneous search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The array is situated at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Shasta County, 290 miles (470 km) northeast of San Francisco, California. The project was originally developed as a joint effort between the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory (RAL) at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), with funds obtained from an initial US$11.5 million donation by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The first phase of construction was completed and the ATA finally became operational on 11 October 2007 with 42 antennas (ATA-42), after Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) had pledged an additional $13.5 million to support the construction of the first and second phases. Although overall Allen has contributed more than $30 million to the project, it has not succeeded in building the 350 6.1 m (20 ft) dishes originally conceived, and the project suffered an operational hiatus due to funding shortfalls between April and August 2011, after which observations resumed. Subsequently, UC Berkeley exited the project, completing divestment in April 2012. The facility is now managed by SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute), an independent, nonprofit research institute. As of 2016, the SETI Institute performs observations with the ATA between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am daily. In August 2014, the installation was threatened by a forest fire in the area and was briefly forced to shut down, but ultimately emerged largely unscathed. First conceived by SETI pioneer Frank Drake, the idea has been a dream of the SETI Institute for years. However, it was not until early 2001 that research and development began, after a donation of $11.5 million by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. In March 2004, following the successful completion of a three-year research and development phase, the SETI Institute unveiled a three-tier construction plan for the telescope. Construction began immediately, thanks to the pledge of $13.5 million by Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) to support the construction of the first and second phases. The SETI Institute named the telescope in Allen's honor. Overall, Paul Allen contributed more than $30 million to the project. The ATA is a centimeter-wave array which pioneers the Large-Number Small-Diameter concept of building radio telescopes. Compared to a large dish antenna, large numbers of smaller dishes are cheaper for the same collecting area. To get similar sensitivity, the signals from all telescopes must be combined. This requires high-performance electronics, which had been prohibitively expensive. Due to the declining cost of electronic components, the required electronics became practicable, resulting in a large cost-saving over telescopes of more conventional design. This is informally referred to as 'replacing steel with silicon'. The ATA has four primary technical capabilities that make it well suited for a range of scientific investigations: a very wide field of view (2.45° at λ = 21 cm), complete instantaneous frequency coverage from 0.5 to 11.2 gigahertz (GHz), multiple simultaneous backends, and active interference mitigation. The area of sky which can be instantaneously imaged is 17 times that obtainable by the Very Large Array telescope. The instantaneous frequency coverage of more than four octaves is unprecedented in radio astronomy, and is the result of a unique feed, input amplifier and signal path design. Active interference mitigation will make it possible to observe even at the frequencies of many terrestrial radio emitters. All-sky surveys are an important part of the science program, and the ATA will have increased efficiency through its ability to conduct extraterrestrial intelligence searches (SETI) and other radio astronomy observations simultaneously. The telescope can do this by splitting the recorded signals in the control room prior to final processing. Simultaneous observations are possible because for SETI, wherever the telescope is pointed, several target stars will lie within the large field of view afforded by the 6 m dishes. By agreement between the UC Berkeley Radio Astronomy Laboratory (RAL) and the SETI Institute, the needs of conventional radio astronomy determined the pointing of the array up until 2012. The ATA is planned to comprise 350 6 m dishes and will make possible large, deep radio surveys that were not previously feasible. The telescope design incorporates many new features, including hydroformed antenna surfaces, a log-periodic feed covering the entire range of frequencies from 500 megahertz (MHz) to 11.2 GHz, and low-noise, wide-band amplifiers with a flat response over the entire band, thus making it possible to amplify the sky signal directly. This amplified signal, containing the entire received bandwidth, is brought from each antenna to the processing room via optical fiber cables. This means that as electronics improve and wider bandwidths are obtainable, only the central processor needs to change, and not the antennas or feeds.