Allen Telescope Array
SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, looks for evidence of technologically advanced civilizations beyond Earth by detecting and analyzing signals from space, such as radio signals.
The Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) is home to the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA), the first and only radio telescope designed from the ground up to be used specifically for SETI searches. The ATA is 42 antennas, 6 feet in diameter each, that can conduct SETI research other cutting-edge radio astronomy.
Recently upgraded, more sensitive front-end receivers can listen for more signals and record phenomena like Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs).
The ATA has conducted searches of star systems identified by NASA’s Kepler mission, a region of high stellar density near the Milky Way’s galactic center, and attempted to detect any radio signals coming from the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua. Current projects include a survey of 300 stellar objects within 30 lightyears of Earth.
CHIME
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has selected HCRO as the site for one of three new outriggers. The outrigger will work with the main CHIME instrument in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley and enable CHIME-detected FRBs to be precisely localized in the sky.
With the ability to detect 10-100 times more fast radio bursts than all other telescopes combined, CHIME has had a radical impact on FRB science. The telescope has allowed scientists to observe the vanishingly brief bursts with exquisite time resolution. CHIME's limitation, however, has been its inability to identify with any precision an FRB's origin. The outriggers will enable this radical leap.
GNU Radio
The SETI Institute and GNU Radio joined forces for signal processing at the ATA. This collaboration extends work begun in 2019 to build open-source hardware and software, accessible to both hobbyists and professional SETI scientists, including a GNU Radio module known as gr-ata.
GNU Radio is a free and open-source software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks to implement software radios. It can be used with readily-available low-cost external RF hardware to create software-defined radios or without hardware in a simulation-like environment.
GNU technology could speed the design of new receivers and allow scientists to change how data are analyzed and displayed quickly.
Visit HCRO
If you are interested in visiting HCRO, we are located approximately 300 miles NE of San Francisco, in Shasta County, California. A self-guided tour is available during opening hours: Thursday-Friday, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm.
Note that HCRO is an active research site. Cell phone signals can interfere with ongoing operations, so cell phones, GPS and Bluetooth equipment must be turned off throughout your visit.