Bob Campbell
Type of contribution: oral
Session: 2

Real-time e-VLBI in the EVN and software correlation developments at JIVE

Bob Campbell, JIVE Arpad Szomoru, JIVE

I will review the capabilities and operation of the European VLBI Network (EVN) correlators at JIVE. Real-time e-VLBI has grown to become an integral part of the EVN, accounting for 769 network hours in 103 observations over the past three years. The turning point came with the ability to provide sustained reliable Gbps real-time data transfer and correlation. Compared with disk-based VLBI, e-EVN better enables astronomers to pursue rapid-response science, and also presents more frequent observing opportunities outside the traditional thrice-annual EVN sessions. The transition from the EVN MkIV correlator to the EVN software correlator at JIVE (SFXC) is also well underway. SFXC was used to correlate more than half of the experiments from the May/June 2011 EVN session. Besides overcoming the physical limits of the MkIV in terms of spectral capacity and sampling rate, SFXC also offers pulsar gating/binning, multiple phase-centers, and correlation of near-field targets. There have been EVN observations in 2011 that have taken advantage of each of these new features.