Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy
The Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) was a network of radio telescopes that was used as a radio interferometer for astronomical observations in the millimeter-wave range .
CARMA was created by merging two smaller radio interferometers. The BIMA array of a consortium of different universities, the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association, with ten antennas 6.1 m in diameter was formerly at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in California . The mm array of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) at Caltech with six antennas each 10.4 m in diameter, however, used to be near Bishop, California.
In 2005, 9 + 6 antennas were brought together at a new high-altitude location in California called Cedar Flat, in order to significantly increase the performance for radio observations at wavelengths of 3 mm (frequency 80–115 GHz) and 1.25 mm (210–270 GHz) . The longest baselines between the individual telescopes were up to 2 km, so that at 1.25 mm wavelength a resolution of about 0.1 arc seconds was possible. CARMA has ceased operations due to the end of funding from the National Science Foundation . The last observation took place on April 3, 2015.
In 2008, an interferometer made up of 8 telescopes with a diameter of 3.5 m, which observed the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect at 22 GHz and was previously stationed in Owens Valley, was moved to the same location .