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How Much Observing Time Does the VLA Lose to Weather or Equipment Failure?

-- Andreas | August 22, 2020
VLA

Question:

Hello,
I would like to repeat a question that left unanswered during the recent VLA virtual tour:
What percentage of science time do you lose due to unforeseen events (like defects or weather)?

Thanks for your answer and best regards from Germany
Andreas

-- Andreas

Answer:

Typically the VLA loses only a small amount of time, much less than 5% of the total available observing time, due to weather restrictions or equipment failure.

-- Jeff Mangum