We report observations of type III radio bursts at decimeter wavelengths (type IIIdm bursts) -signatures of suprathermal electron beams propagating in the low corona -using the new technique of radio dynamic imaging spectroscopy provided by the recently upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). For the first time, type IIIdm bursts were imaged with high time and frequency resolution over a broad frequency band, allowing electron beam trajectories in the corona to be deduced. Together with simultaneous hard X-ray (HXR) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) observations, we show these beams emanate from an energy release site located in the low corona at a height below ∼ 15 Mm, and propagate along a bundle of discrete magnetic loops upward into the corona. Our observations enable direct measurements of the plasma density along the magnetic loops, and allow us to constrain the diameter of these loops to be less than 100 km. These over-dense and ultra-thin loops reveal the fundamentally fibrous structure of the Sun's corona. The impulsive nature of the electron beams, their accessibility to different magnetic field lines, and the detailed structure of the magnetic release site revealed by the radio observations indicate that the localized energy release is highly fragmentary in time and space, supporting a bursty reconnection model that involves secondary magnetic structures for magnetic energy release and particle acceleration.

High angular resolution images of extragalactic radio sources are being made with the Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy (HALCA) satellite and ground-based radio telescopes as part of the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Space Observatory Programme (VSOP). VSOP observations at 1.6 and 5 gigahertz of the milli–arc-second–scale structure of radio quasars enable the quasar core size and the corresponding brightness temperature to be determined, and they enable the motions of jet components that are close to the core to be studied. Here, VSOP images of the gamma-ray source 1156+295, the quasar 1548+056, the ultraluminous quasar 0014+813, and the superluminal quasar 0212+735 are presented and discussed.

In almost 30 years of operation, the Very Large Array (VLA) has proved to be a remarkably flexible and productive radio telescope. However, the basic capabilities of the VLA have changed little since it was designed. A major expansion utilizing modern technology is currently underway to improve the capabilities of the VLA by at least an order of magnitude in both sensitivity and in frequency coverage. The primary elements of the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) project include new or upgraded receivers for continuous frequency coverage from 1 to 50 GHz, new local oscillator, intermediate frequency, and wide bandwidth data transmission systems to carry signals with 16 GHz total bandwidth from each antenna, and a new digital correlator with the capability to process this bandwidth with an unprecedented number of frequency channels for an imaging array. Also included are a new monitor and control system and new software that will provide telescope ease of use. Scheduled for completion in 2012, the EVLA will provide the world research community with a flexible, powerful, general-purpose telescope to address current and future astronomical issues.Comment: Added journal reference: published in Proceedings of the IEEE, Special Issue on Advances in Radio Astronomy, August 2009, vol. 97, No. 8, 1448-1462 Six figures, one tabl

A unique lag-based VLBI correlator system has been developed for the purpose of supporting both S2-based Space VLBI observations in the Japanese-led VSOP mission and the Canadian Geodetic VLBI program. The system architecture has been designed so that replication of a small number of modules can be used to construct systems with a wide range of sizes. Optimized for a large correlator, the design is 'station-based' in the sense that as many hardware and software functions as possible are performed before data is replicated and transmitted for baseline (station pair) processing. As well as delay compensation and generation of phase rotation coefficients, station-based functions include autocorrelation, tone extraction, pulsar gating, signal-statistics accumulation, and digital filtering. Doppler shift correction (fringe stopping) is performed on a baseline basis at each correlator lag so that there are no smearing effects (lag-dependent loss of coherence) or frequency shifts that must otherwise be corrected after correlation. This is a key element that simplifies the baseline processing architecture when high accelerations associated with an orbiting antenna must be considered. Flexible, efficient distribution of data from station-based hardware to baseline-based hardware is accomplished by serializing the wide data paths to 1 Gbit/s signals and using high-speed switches to route the signals to their final destinations where they are de-serialized before cross-correlation. This greatly reduces the size, wiring complexity, and cost of the system. The interval between updates of the delay models, integration times, and other important events is typically 10 ms, but can be as short as 1 ms. Within this period, delay and fringe model generation is performed using linear hardware synthesizers. The correlator also contains a number of unique signal processing functions that extend its capability beyond a basic VLBI correlator: flexible Local Oscillator frequency switching for bandwidth synthesis; rapid (1 ms) correlator dump intervals (allowing, for example, the study of some single-pulse pulsar characteristics on VLBI baselines); simple but powerful multi-rate digital signal-processing techniques to allow correlation of signals at different but related sample rates; and a digital 'zoom' filter for producing very high resolution cross-power spectra. The correlator software, written almost entirely in 'C', is highly integrated into the system, supports all of the functions mentioned above, and is re-configurable to support expansion of the correlator. The software schedules the use of hardware resources to enable correlation of multiple observations concurrently, and automatically schedules the correlation of observations that require more than the available number of physical playback terminals. There is also substantial pre-correlation consistency checking. The delay model is based on CALC for ground-based antennas and NAIF for space-based antennas. Output data is stored in the UVFITS format. The paper describes the des...