Bleien Radio Observatory

Bleien Radio Observatory is a radio astronomy observatory located halfway between Zurich and Bern in Switzerland. Its focus is on large bandwidth radio spectroscopy. The observatory is near the village of Bleien, 5 km south of Gränichen in the Canton of Aargau. The place is in a shallow valley that is relatively well protected against terrestrial interference.

History

The observatory was built in 1979 by ETH Zurich. Since that time it consists of two parabolic antennae of 7 m and 5 m diameter separated by 100 m and a lab building containing the spectrometers and other electronics. For the first time, a fully digitized and remotely controlled receiver was used. Frequency-agile spectrometers were applied initially. Now digital filter banks and FFT (Fast Fourier transform) spectrometers are in operation. The initial frequency range of 100 - 1000 MHz was enlarged to 10 MHz - 5 GHz. This range is the largest for solar radio observations since 2005. Starting in 2014, the observatory has been modified for extragalactic and cosmology research and for instrument development and testing.