Figure 1. the Vla in One of Its More Compact Antenna Array Configurations. the 27 Antennas Are Moveable on Rail Tracks, And Different Configurations Are Used to Obtain Different Spatial Samplings of Incoming Cosmic Radiation.

Figure 1. The VLA in one of its more compact antenna
array configurations. The 27 antennas are moveable
on rail tracks, and different configurations are used to
obtain different spatial samplings of incoming cosmic radiation.

Figure 2a. An example of a possible SKA configuration.
In this model, patches of collecting area (stations) extend
from a dense core in a log-spiral arrangement. The pattern
continues to baselines of 3000 km. The huge number of
SKA sensors gives excellent spatial sampling characteristics
without the need to periodically relocate antennas.

Figure 2b. An artist's impression of the SKA core region,
with planar-aperture arrays and dishes visible. All the sensor
technologies will share wide band communication as well as
signal processing and data-processing infrastructures.

Figure 3. A view of the SKA as an information and
communications technology (ICT) machine. Signals from
a variety of different types of electromagnetic-field sensors
(antennas and receivers) are transported and processed
via common machinery. Sensors are chosen largely on the basis
of their performance-to-cost ratio within particular frequency bands.