DSA-10: A Prototype Array for Localizing Fast Radio Bursts

The Deep Synoptic Array 10 dish prototype is an instrument designed to detect and localise fast radio bursts with arcsecond accuracy in real time. Deployed at Owens Valley Radio Observatory, it consists of ten 4.5m diameter dishes, equipped with a 250MHz bandwidth dual polarisation receiver, centered at 1.4GHz. The 20 input signals are digitised and field programmable gate arrays are used to transform the data to the frequency domain and transmit it over ethernet. A series of computer servers buffer both raw data samples and perform a real time search for fast radio bursts on the incoherent sum of all inputs. If a pulse is detected, the raw data surrounding the pulse is written to disk for coherent processing and imaging. The prototype system was operational from June 2017 - February 2018 conducting a drift scan search. Giant pulses from the Crab pulsar were used to test the detection and imaging pipelines. The 10-dish prototype system was brought online again in March 2019, and will gradually be replaced with the new DSA-110, a 110-dish system, over the next two years to improve sensitivity and localisation accuracy.