OVERVIEW

The Deep Synoptic Array (DSA, formerly DSA-2000) will be a world-leading radio survey telescope and multi-messenger discovery engine. The array will consist of of 1650 × 6.15m dishes instantaneously covering the 0.7 – 2 GHz frequency range, spanning an area of 20 km × 16 km in a radio-quiet valley in Nevada. It will have near complete sampling of the uv-plane allowing us to replace a traditional correlator digital backend with a “radio camera” that produces images in real-time. In a five-year initial survey, the DSA will image the entire viewable sky (~31,000 deg²) repeatedly over multiple epochs, with a spatial resolution of 3.0 arcseconds, detecting >1 billion radio sources in a combined full-Stokes sky map with a typical rms noise of 500 nJy/beam. As a radio survey instrument it will be unprecedented relative to any instrument existing or planned.

A Multi-Messenger Radio Survey Camera

Radio Camera Products

10 wideband continuum channels (I, 0.7 – 2.0 GHz)
605 continuum channels (IQUV, 0.7 – 2.0 GHz @ 2.15 MHz resolution)
5600 low-resolution channels (0.7 – 1.45 GHz @ 134 kHz resolution, HI: 56 km/s @ z = 1, 28 km/s @ z = 0)
Tuneable zoom band A: 4096 channels (I), 8 kHz (1.8 km/s) [extragalactic HI, D < 100 Mpc]
Tuneable zoom band B: 1048 channels (I), 1.05 kHz (0.22 km/s) [Galactic HI, Δv = 225 km/s]
Output: 1 image / cubes (16k images) / 16k × 16k pixels per primary beam

Pulsar Timing Beams

1.3 GHz bandwidth (0.7 – 2.0 GHz)
4 steerable, full polarization beams
Output: folded profiles with 2048 phase bins, 1 second integration time, and 605 coherently dedispersed channels
200 pulsars monitored monthly

Chronoscope Products

4000 targeted beams for pulsar searching and timing (0.1ms, 134kHz res)
200,000 uniformly spaced beams for pulsar searching (0.1ms, 134kHz res)
6,000,000 uniformly spaced beams FRB searching (1ms, 134kHz res)
Output: low-latency FRB alerts, pulsar folded profiles.

  
            Parameter
            Value
        
            Antennas
            1650 × 6.15-m dishes
        
            Frequency coverage
            0.7 – 2.0 GHz
        
            Primary beam FWHM
            2.5° at 1.35 GHz
        
            Synthesized beam FWHM
            3.0″ at 1.35 GHz
        
            Continuum sensitivity
            600 nJy in 1 hr
        
            All-sky survey
            31,000 deg2 @ 500 nJy/beam
        
            Number of unique radio sources
            > 1 billion
        
            HI: z < 1 (5600 × 130 kHz)
            5 million galaxies
        
            HI: < 100 Mpc (4192 × 8 kHz)
            100,000 galaxies
        
            HI: Galactic (960 × 1 kHz)
            10″ resolution at 0.25 km/s
        
            RM grid (625 × 2.1 MHz)
            10 million sources
        
            Fast radio bursts
            100,000 localized to < 0.5″
        
            Pulsar search
            22,000 new pulsars
        
            Millisecond pulsar timing
            TOA data for 200 pulsars

Unparalleled Survey Speed

Survey speed and sensitivity of the DSA and other current and planned radio telescopes that operate at 1.4 GHz.

The DSA will operate as a dedicated survey telescope. This allows the array design to be highly optimized to maximize survey speed—a low cost antenna with an ambient temperature receiver will operate at a single frequency band, with all observations conducted in blocks of 20 minutes. The homogeneous nature of the resulting data is a key factor that enables the radio camera approach for the DSA, with data products that will bypass the growing data deluge problem in radio astronomy, enabling broader community access to the radio sky. This strategy will allow the DSA to provide the essential radio complement to the next generation of astronomical surveys (e.g., Vera C. Rubin Observatory, Argus Array, SPHEREx, SRG/eROSITA, Roman, Euclid), and an unparalleled all-sky reference in advance of the ngVLA and SKA.