A Strong Radio Transient at High Galactic Latitude

Radio transient surveys at high Galactic latitudes have not been conducted until now, as they require long periods of observation. We have constructed a full-time survey facility, the eight-element Nasu Spherical Dish Array, for radio transients and pulsars. The observing frequency is 1.4 GHz, and the bandwidth is 20 MHz. We started the radio transient survey project in 2004 and have detected some radio transients. In this paper, we report the first radio transient detected in this project. During 11 days of drift-scan observations in 2004, an outburst of approximately 1.6 Jy, which we are calling WJN J1737+3808, was detected on May 20, 15:59 UT, at α = 17h37m02s ± 05s, δ = 38°08' ± 0.4° (J2000.0), (l = 63°12', b = 30°19'). We have not yet identified the object as a known celestial object.