Observations of Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) Using the Mexican Array Radio Telescope (MEXART)

The Mexican Array Radio Telescope (MEXART) consists of a 64x64 (4096) full-wavelength dipole antenna array, operating at 140 MHz, with a bandwidth of 2 MHz, occupying about 9660 square meters (69 m x 140 m) (http://www.mexart.unam.mx). This is a dedicated radio array for Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) observations located at latitude 19A degrees 48'N, longitude 101A degrees 41'W. We characterize the performance of the system. We report the first IPS observations with the instrument, employing a Butler Matrix (BM) of 16x16 ports, fed by 16 east -aEuro parts per thousand west lines of 64 dipoles (1/4 of the total array). The BM displays a radiation pattern of 16 beams at different declinations (from -48, to +88 degrees). We present a list of 19 strong IPS radio sources (having at least 3 sigma in power gain) detected by the instrument. We report the power spectral analysis procedure of the intensity fluctuations. The operation of MEXART will allow us a better coverage of solar wind disturbances, complementing the data provided by the other, previously built, instruments.