JBO - ALMA page

Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimetre Array

Artist's Impression of ALMA (ESO)

The Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) will be the largest observatory ever built operating at millimetre andsubmillimetre wavelengths in the world, and will provide astronomers with dramatic new insights into the formation of stars and galaxies. The observatory is being constructed by an international partnership,including a significant UK contribution funded by PPARC.

Here at Jodrell Bank Observatory we are involved in the area of digital fibre optic transmission and are developing various apsects of the system which will transmit the high-bandwidth signals from the individual antennas to the central correlator. This will be done digitally over optical fibres.

Recent work includes the design of the optical receiver mezzanine board that will be used in a test interferometer, to be built at NRAO, New Mexico in 2002.The board has now been built and tested at Jodrell Bank. Images of the lab set-up and the resultant eye diagrams are available to view.

ALMA PDR Documentation

Documentation prepared for the ALMA preliminary design review (PDR) in Granada, Spain 21-27th April can be found in the document list. All files are in PDF format.

The design work carried out at Jodrell Bank on the fibre links for data transfer can be found in the ALMA memos published by the group.
ALMA Memo 349 - Fibre Optic Link Design of the Atacama IF data Transfer system
ALMA Memo 380 - The Correlator at the OSF?

Details of the other work being carried out by UK groups can be found at the ALMA-UK page and more information on the ALMA project can be found at ESO and NRAO.

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