MWA Observation Proposal

This form, over the next 4 pages, should be filled in and submitted if you wish to apply for observing time on the MWA telescope.

 

It includes

• All the basic proposal information.
• Space for uploading the scientific justification (for the TAC) as a PDF document, detailed observing instructions (for the operations team) as a separate PDF document, and where applicable, your data management plan (for the TAC and director) as another PDF document.
• Fields where you should, if possible, identify all the sources, frequency channel sets, and observation modes that you wish to use.

 

Unless your proposal has dozens of sources, or uses drift-scan, or has other complications, please enter them here, and your observations will be scheduled using the coordinates and values entered in this form, not from the accompanying PDF documents.

 

Note that creating an account on the 'jotform' web site isn't necessary to submit a proposal, but if you do, you will be able to save your fully or partially completed form, and come back to it later.

 

Please also read:

• The MWA time allocation policy, data access policy,  data retention policy, and other documentation available on the MWA web site: https://www.mwatelescope.org/about/#documentation
• The MWA telescope description paper: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PASA...30....7T/abstract
• The Phase II MWA description paper: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PASA...35...33W/abstract
• The MWAX correlator paper: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023PASA...40...19M/abstract
• Subarrays and observing modes available in the 2026A semester
  https://mwatelescope.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/MP/pages/666894337/2026A+semester+sub-arrays+and+configuration

 

Note: for proposals requesting 500 or more hours of telescope time (in this and any previous or future semesters) a data management plan is essential, as described here: https://www.mwatelescope.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023.03.16_MWA-LARGE-PROJECT-POLICY-v1.2.pdf

Array configuration

MWA will be running with 32 receivers, each capable of digitising 8 tiles simultaneously, for a maximum of 256 tiles.

The SHAO receivers handling the tiles in the ‘Phase II compact’ configuration (core tiles, plus hexes, see below), can be configured to run in oversampling mode, to eliminate the artefacts at coarse channel boundaries, but this has some caveats:

When the correlator is running in ‘oversampling’ mode, all of the RRI receivers must be disabled, because the correlator can’t handle a mix of oversampled data (from SHAO and/or NI receivers) and critically sampled data (from RRI receivers). That means at most 128 tiles can be used - the tiles in the ‘Phase II compact’ configuration below.

Changing between ‘oversampling’ and ‘critically sampled’ mode happens automatically as needed, but results in a 10-15 minute dead time while the receivers and correlator are being reconfigured, which will impact scheduling. Because the telescope will usually stay in critically sampled mode, requests for lots of short blocks of oversampled observations will he hard to satisfy. The same is true for the new voltage-beamfomer mode available for testing this semester.

For normal (critically sampled) observations, the correlator will run in 256T mode all the time, with all 32 receivers active. Each observation can be scheduled with whatever subarray is desired for that target. The standard D0006 morning and evening calibrator blocks will be scheduled as full array (256T) observations, so calibrations can be applied to any subarray taken.

See this page for more information, including a link to precise tile locations: https://mwatelescope.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/MP/pages/666894337/2026A+semester+sub-arrays+and+configuration

Channel selection

Use these two fields to specify what frequency channel sets will be used in this proposal. Note that these must be specified using coarse channel numbers, NOT the frequency in MHz. For reference, each coarse channel is 1.28 MHz wide, and channel 100 is centred on 128.0 MHz. Each channel set must consist of 24 coarse channels, and those channels can be a single contiguous 32 MHz block, or arbitrarily spaced over the whole bandwidth.

 

Predefined channel sets are one or more of:

• The name of a GLEAM band (GLEAM69, GLEAM93, GLEAM121, GLEAM145 or GLEAM169) for 24 contiguous channels centred on that channel.
• DUAL, for two 15 MHz bands (channels 57-68 and 121-132).
• PAIRS, for 12 pairs of two contiguous channels (62,63,69,70, 76,77, 84,85,93,94,103,104,113,114,125,126,139,140,153,154,169,170,187,188).
• PICKET, for 24 individual channels (62,67,73,78,84,89,95,100, 106,111,117,122,128,133,139,144,150,155,161,166,172,177,183,188)

Custom channel sets are an arbitary list of 24 channels. You specify them by giving one or more specifier strings, separated by semicolons (;), adding up to 24 channels in total. Each specifier must be one of these possibilities:

• A single coarse channel number, eg '100' for channel 100 (128.0 MHz)
• C,W for a block of W channels, centred on channel C, eg '100,8' for channels 96,97,97,99,100,101,102,103
• C,W,I for every 'I'th channel in a block of width W centred on channel C, eg '100,8,2' for channels 96, 98, 100, 102
• S:E for every channel starting with S and ending with E, eg '100:105' for channels 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105.
• S:E:I for every 'I'th channel starting with S and ending with E, eg '100:105:2' for channels 100, 102, 104

For example:

• '63,12 ; 127,12' is the same as the DUAL range above
• '62:63 ; 69:70 ; 76:77 ; 84:85 ; 93:94 ; 103:104 ; 113:114 ; 125:126 ; 139:140 ; 153:154 ; 169:170 ; 187:188' is the same as the PAIRS range above
• '62;63;69;70;76;77;84;85;93;94;103;104;113;114;125;126;139;140;153;154;169;170;187;188' is the same as the PICKET range above

Most people would use something like '100,24', for 24 contiguous channels centered on channel 100.

Please see here for more information regarding correlator modes.

Calculate the total data volume in Terabytes for your entire proposal, for the requested tile count/s and observing mode/s, using this tool:

https://ws.mwatelescope.org/data/volcalc

To read the MWA’s Time Allocation Policy and find more information on the categories, click here

That's it - please click 'Review Answers' and check everything that you've entered, then 'Submit' to send in your proposal.