The Submillimeter Array (SMA) is an 8-element radio interferometer located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It is a joint project between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Academia Sinica. SMA explores the universe by detecting light of colors which are not visible to the human eye. It receives millimeter and submillimeter radiation, so named because its wavelength ranges from 0.3 to 1.7 millimeter, or 0.01 to 0.07 inches.
 

Photo: The Submillimeter Array at Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

Submillimeter Array is a leg of Around the World in 80 Telescopes tour: Click to play; click  (lower right) to view video full screen Next stop: Caltech Submillimeter (previous stop: CFHT)

The SMA operates at frequencies from 180 GHz to 700 GHz, the 6m dishes may be arranged into configurations with baselines as long as 509m, producing a synthesized beam of sub-arcsecond width. Each element can observe with two receivers simultaneously, with 2 GHz bandwidth each. The digital correlator backend allows flexible allocation of thousands of spectral channels to each receiver.

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