Initial results from multi-beam observations of pulsars and solar transient with the digital beamformer for the Gauribidanur pulsar system

Abstract

Recently a prototype for pulsar observations at low radio frequencies (RFs) (<100 MHz) using log-periodic dipole antennas (LPDAs) in the Gauribidanur Radio Observatory (≈77°E14°N) near Bangalore, India, was commissioned. The aforementioned system is currently being augmented (i) to directly digitize the RF signals from the individual antennas and (ii) with a digital beamformer to simultaneously observe different regions of the sky present within the primary “beam” of the LPDA used in the array. Our initial results indicate that co-temporal observations of a known pulsar along with the Sun using two different beams could be used to calibrate the dynamic spectrum of the solar radio transients. This is important because the calibration of the latter in observations with the conventional solar radio spectrographs is difficult.