Merging millimeter arrays

Two California telescope arrays will be joined to form a bigger interferometer, the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy. CARMA will marry Caltech’s Owens Valley Array to the Berkeley Illinois Maryland Association’s array from Hat Creek in Northern California; some new, smaller telescopes may join the family later. With six 10.4-meter and nine 6.1-meter telescopes, CARMA will have better resolution at shorter wavelengths than the parent arrays. To be located at an undetermined site in the Inyo mountains, the newly combined array will move up in the world, from 1200 meters to roughly 2750 meters, where less atmosphere to cut through means improved sensitivity. The merger, which is expected to cost around $15 million and be completed by 2004, will be overseen by Tony Beasley, who was recently hired away from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. Creating CARMA had been recommended for several years, most recently last summer in the National Research Council’s astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey. A consortium of four universities will run CARMA.