FUNA Lunch Talk:

Rick Perley

NRAO

Status and Progress of the EVLA Project: From the VLA to the JVLA

March 9

12:10PM, Note unusual location: CV Auditorium

Abstract:

The EVLA Project -- a major upgrade of the Very Large Array -- will be completed at the end of this fiscal year. The central goal of the project -- to enhance the capabilities of the VLA by one or more orders of magnitude in all key areas except spatial resolution -- has been met. These vast improvements have indeed produced an essentially new instrument which will enable new science not possible with any other telescope. In recognition of this, the array will be renamed the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array at a dedication ceremony on March 31

Although the project is nearly completed, development of the full suite of potential capabilities will be an ongoing activity. New observing modes, new calibration modes, and new data processing capabilities will be needed to permit our future users to take maximum advantage of the JVLA.

In this talk, I will summarize the current capabilities of the array, and describe the rapidly increasing suite of new observational modes. I will show examples of the new science currently being produced, and will conclude with the challenges we face to ensure front-line science from the JVLA in the future.