干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The ACA (Atacama Compact Array) system is an important element of ALMA and consists of four ACA 12-m antennas and twelve ACA 7-m antennas. The ACA system aims to acquire the total power data with four 12-m antennas and the short baseline interferometer data with 7-m antennas. The ACA system also increases reliability of the interferometer maps of astronomical sources larger than the field view of the 12-m antenna. The science performance of these antennas has been extensively verified at OSF (operation support facility) at an elevation of 2900 m in Atacama desert in northern Chile since 2007. The pointing performance has been verified with a dedicated optical pointing telescope, the servo performance is tested with angle encoders, and the surface accuracy has been measured with a radio holography method. Both ACA 12-m antennas and 7-m antennas have been successfully demonstrated to meet the very stringent ALMA specifications.