Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) Phase II Deployment and Commissioning
Lindsay M. Berkhout, Daniel Jacobs, Zuhra Abdurashidova, Tyrone Adams, James Aguirre, Paul Alexander, Zaki S. Ali, Rushelle Baartman, Yanga Balfour, Adam P. Beardsley, G. Bernardi, Tashalee S. Billings, Judd D. Bowman, Richard F. Bradley, Philip Bull, Jacob Burba, Ruby Byrne, Steven Carey, C. L. Carilli, Kai-Feng Chen, Carina Cheng, Samir Choudhuri, David R. DeBoer, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Matt Dexter, Joshua S. Dillon, Scott Dynes, Nico Eksteen, John Ely, Aaron Ewall‐Wice, Nicolas Fagnoni, Randall Fritz, Steven R. Furlanetto, Kingsley Gale‐Sides, Hugh Garsden, B. K. Gehlot, Abhik Ghosh, Brian Glendenning, Adélie Gorce, Deepthi Gorthi, Bradley Greig, Jasper Grobbelaar, Ziyaad Halday, B. J. Hazelton, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, J. Hickish, Tian Huang, Alec Josaitis, Austin Julius, MacCalvin Kariseb, Nicholas S. Kern, Joshua Kerrigan, Honggeun Kim, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Saul A. Kohn, Matthew Kolopanis, Adam Lanman, Paul La Plante, Adrian Liu, Anita Loots, Yin-Zhe Ma, David H. E. MacMahon, Lourence Malan, Cresshim Malgas, Keith Malgas, Bradley Marero, Zachary E. Martinot, Andrei Mesinger, Mathakane Molewa, M. F. Morales, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Steven Murray, Abraham R. Neben, Bojan Nikolic, Chuneeta D. Nunhokee, Hans Nuwegeld, Aaron R. Parsons, Robert Pascua, Nipanjana Patra, Samantha Pieterse, Yuxiang Qin, Eleanor Rath, N. Razavi‐Ghods, Daniel Riley, James Robnett, Kathryn Rosie, Mário G. Santos, Peter Sims, Saurabh Singh, Dara Storer, Hilton Swarts, Jianrong Tan, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Pieter van Wyngaarden, Peter K. G. Williams, Haoxuan Zheng, Zhilei Xu
Abstract
Abstract This paper presents the design and deployment of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) phase II system. HERA is designed as a staged experiment targeting 21 cm emission measurements of the Epoch of Reionization. First results from the phase I array are published as of early 2022, and deployment of the phase II system is nearing completion. We describe the design of the phase II system and discuss progress on commissioning and future upgrades. As HERA is a designated Square Kilometre Array pathfinder instrument, we also show a number of “case studies” that investigate systematics seen while commissioning the phase II system, which may be of use in the design and operation of future arrays. Common pathologies are likely to manifest in similar ways across instruments, and many of these sources of contamination can be mitigated once the source is identified.