Located on the site of the Nançay Radio Observatory (200 km south of Paris) in France, NenuFAR is a very large low-frequency radio telescope, which is among the most powerful in the world in its frequency range between 10 MHz and 85 MHz. This range corresponds to the lowest spectral “window” in which we can observe with radio telescopes from the surface of the Earth. NenuFAR is also formally recognized as an SKA Pathfinder.
NenuFAR is built at 95% and in end of commissioning. It has been used in « Early Science » phase since July 2019, operated by Key Programs (KP) in shared risk mode. Additional Regular (P.I.) Programs are added at each cycle. NenuFAR will gather at completion 1976 dual-polarization antennas hierarchically distributed in 104 groups (“mini-arrays”) of 19 antennas, of which 96 are located within a core of diameter ~400 m and 8 at distances up to ~5 km from the core.
Main technical characteristics
The antennas are connected in parallel to several receivers, allowing the instrument to operate in 4 distinct modes (if needed simultaneously). Within ACME: R&D to allow handling of VO-Events to respond automatically to external triggers