The Chinese Radio Telescope Array for Interplanetary Scintillation Monitoring

Solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and enegertic particles, etc., are the driving sources that may cause catastrophic space weathers. It is desirable to obtain information of solar eruptions like flares and CMEs, etc., propagating from the Sun to the near-Earth space. The Chinese Meridian Project includes the interplanetary scintillation (IPS) telescopes to investigate the structures and properties of the solar wind throughout the inner heliosphere. From IPS observations one can obtain disturbance information on CME speeds and thus on CME arrival times well off the Sun-Earth line. When combined with modeling techniques and/or in situ data, other parameters such as CME masses can also be obtained, along with CME propagation directions and arrival times. Therefore, a radio telescope array with three 140 m (Formula presented.) 40 m parabolic cylinder antennas at the main site and two (Formula presented.) 30 m antennas at two subsites about 200 km away from each other, featuring a multi-site array with the highest sensitivity dedicated to IPS observations in the world, has been supported as a major facility of the Chinese Meridian Project. The detailed description of the final optimized design and implementation of this IPS radio telescope array is introduced. The antennas and array configuration, the analog and digital receiving systems for the main site and subsites, the calibration of the IPS telescope array and data processing are described. Finally the overall performance of the IPS telescope array is provided. The detailed information on the IPS radio telescope array will facilitate the use of its data serving space weather research and applications.