GALFACTS data processing facility

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Mutli-pixel array receivers on radio telescopes allows them to be used as wide-field cameras to image radio emission over large areas of sky and observe large regions of the universe in a short time.  This capability is opening up new possibilities for exploring compelling questions in astronomy.  Understanding the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism is one of the key challenges of astrophysics and a main science drivers for next-generational radio telescopes being planned by the international community, such as the Square Kilometre Array.  Magnetic fields in the Universe are uniquely revealed by the polarization properties of long-wavelength cosmic radio waves, both because the emission is produced by interactions of energetic charged particles with magnetic fields and because the polarization is affected by travelling through magnetized space.  The Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico is the largest radio telescope aperture in the world.  It has recently been equipped with an array receiver, providing the world's astronomers with a uniquely sensitive wide-field imaging radio camera. The Galactic ALFA Continuum Transit Survey (GALFACTS) is an international project lead by the University of Calgary to use this new capability to carry out a deep survey of the polarized radiation from our Milky Way Galaxy and from hundreds of thousands of external galaxies.  By using a newly designed and constructed advance digital electronic system, we will be able to detect radiation simultaneously over a wide range of wavelengths, measuring the effects of the radio waves traveling through the magnetic fields in our own Galaxy and intergalactic space.  We expect this project to have a transformational impact on our knowledge of magnetic fields in the universe.  We will measure the structure and strength of the field in the Milky Way, its relationship to the matter in the Galaxy and its role in galaxy evolution, take our first steps in probing the magnetism of intergalactic space, and observe the evolution of magnetic fields with cosmic time in distant galaxies.  This proposal is for completion of the GALFACTS processing facility that turns the raw data into images for scientific analysis.