Plateau de Bure Interferometer

Plateau de Bure Interferometer

Several of the interferometer's antennas, with one of the rails for antenna displacement in the foreground.
Alternative names	PdBI
Part of	Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique
Location(s)	Grenoble, canton of Grenoble-5, arrondissement of Grenoble, Isère, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Metropolitan France, France
Coordinates	44°38′02″N 5°54′29″E / 44.63389°N 5.90792°E / 44.63389; 5.90792
Organization	Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique
Altitude	2,550 m (8,370 ft)
Built	1988– (1988–)
Telescope style	radio interferometer
Replaced by	Northern Extended Millimeter Array
Website	www.iram-institute.org
Location of Plateau de Bure Interferometer
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[edit on Wikidata]

The Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) was a six-antenna interferometer on the Pic de Bure (2550 m) in the French Alps, operated by the Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique. In 2014, it has been replaced by the Northern Extended Millimeter Array.^[1] It was specifically designed for millimetre-wave observations and specialises in studies of line emission from molecular gas and radio continuum of cold dust.^[2]

The interferometer consisted of six antennas with a diameter of 15 m each. These antennas could be placed in a T-shaped pattern, with north–south track of 368 m and an east–west track of 768 m. There were 32 stations along these tracks where the antennas can be positioned. Observing bands are at 3, 2, 1.8 and 0.8 mm.^[3] At an observing wavelength of 3 mm (100 GHz frequency) each of these telescopes could resolve two objects 45 arcseconds apart from each other on the sky. In an interferometer, these 45″ are actually the size of the field of view. So an interferometer like this one images, at very high resolution (better than 1″), structures smaller than 45″.^[4]