A new Pulsar Timing System for a new Radio Telescope in Ghana.

What is it about?

A brief summary of the capabilities of the new radio telescope at the GRAO and some of the design of the new pulsar timing system. Pulsars are neutron stars that emit faint radio pulses with periods between milliseconds and ~23 seconds, there are are currently ~2700 known pulsars. The signals are so faint they can only be detected by adding multiple occurrences of the signal together and the primary role of a pulsar timing system is to process the 1.6GBytes per second of data received from the telescope to extract the faint radio pulses.

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Why is it important?

The AVN telescope array is part of the 'path finder' activities for the development and operation of the Square Kilometre Array telescope in Africa. The AVN will give the partner countries the time and equipment to develop both the operational and scientific experience to participate fully in the SKA project. The UK is also a major contributor to the SKA, along with South Africa, and to technology transfer programs with a number of African countries.