CARMA Memo #1 (=BIMA memo 84) - 01jan2002

CARMA Sensitivity and Correlator Requirements
M. C. H. Wright
Radio Astronomy laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720

Abstract

We calculate the relative sensitivities for different sub-arrays of the
CARMA antennas. Making all correlations of 6 x 10.4, 9 x 6.1, and 8 x
3.5 m antennas requires 253 baselines per polarization. Most of the
sensitivity, ~90% for single field, and ~80% for mosaicing
observations, can be obtained using sub-arrays with about half this
number of correlations.  Errors in the primary beam illumination may
limit the image fidelity in mosaicing observations; this limits the
usefulness of correlations between 10.4 and 3.5 m antennas.