CHIME/FRB Outriggers: Design Overview
Abstract The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has emerged as the world’s premier facility for studying fast radio bursts (FRBs) through its fast transient search backend CHIME/FRB. The CHIME/FRB Outriggers project will augment this high detection rate of 2–3 FRBs per day with the ability to precisely localize them using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). Using three strategically located stations in North America and deploying recently developed synoptic VLBI observing techniques, the Outriggers will provide ∼50 mas localization precision for the majority of detected FRBs. This paper presents an overview of the design and implementation of the Outriggers, covering their geographic distribution, structural design, and observational capabilities. We detail the scientific objectives driving the project, including the characterization of FRB populations, host galaxy demographics, and the use of FRBs as cosmological probes. We also discuss the calibration strategies available to mitigate ionospheric and instrumental effects, ensuring high-precision localization. With two stations currently in science operations, and the third in commissioning, the CHIME/FRB Outriggers project is poised to become a cornerstone of the FRB field, offering unprecedented insights into this enigmatic cosmic phenomenon.
Authors
- Jean-François Cliche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6509-8430)
- Albert Wai Kit Lau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2457-3298)
- Jonathan Sievers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6903-5074)
- M. Amiri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6523-9029)
- T. L. Landecker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1455-2546)
- Mawson W. Sammons (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4623-5329)
- Daniele Michilli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2551-7554)
- Ayush Pandhi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8897-1973)
- Tomás Cassanelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2047-5276)
- Andrew Siemion (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2828-7720)
- Kiyoshi W. Masui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4279-6946)
- Jane Kaczmarek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4810-7803)
- Bradley W. Meyers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8845-1225)
- Calvin Leung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4209-7408)
- Gwendolyn M. Eadie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3734-8177)
- Kaitlyn Shin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6823-2073)
- Kholoud Khairy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7115-3447)
- Robert Main (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7164-9507)
- Mark Carlson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7664-5142)
- Kenzie Nimmo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0510-0740)
- David R. DeBoer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3197-2294)
- Ian Hendricksen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3736-2080)
- B. M. Gaensler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3382-9558)
- Kalyani Bhopi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9218-1624)
- Juan Mena-Parra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0772-9326)
- Shion Andrew (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3980-815X)
- Andre Renard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3463-7918)
- Bridget C. Andersen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5908-3152)
- Alyssa Cassity
- Adam Lanman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2116-3573)
- Debbie Spear
- Charanjot Brar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8233)
- Nikola Milutinović (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8292-0051)
- V. M. Kaspi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9345-0307)
- Pranav Sanghavi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5504-229X)
- Ingrid H. Stairs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9784-8670)
- K. Vanderlinde (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4535-9378)
- Vishwangi Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4823-1946)
- Shami Chatterjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2878-1502)
- Alice P. Curtin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8376-1563)
- Ziggy Pleunis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4795-697X)
- Emily Petroff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9822-8008)
- Nina Gusinskaia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6128-3735)
- Masoud Rafiei-Ravandi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7694-6650)
- Seth R. Siegel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2631-6217)
- P. J. Boyle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8537-9299)
- Ronniy C. Joseph (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3457-4670)
- J. W. T. Hessels (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2317-1446)
- Haochen Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1491-3738)
- Ketan R. Sand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3154-3676)
- M. Dobbs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7166-6422)
- Jacob P. Willis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4560-5316)
- J. B. Peterson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1340-818X)
- Ryan Mckinven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7348-6900)
- Mohit Bhardwaj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3615-3514)
- Alexander W. Pollak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3430-7671)
- Kevin Bandura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3772-2798)
- Mark Halpern (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1760-0868)
- Tarik Zegmott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7076-8643)
- Kendrick M. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2088-3125)
- Mattias Lazda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5857-4264)
- Aaron B. Pearlman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8912-0732)
- Emmanuel Fonseca (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8384-5049)
- Vadym Bidula (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9653-6104)
- Fengqiu Adam Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4098-5222)
- Paul Scholz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7374-7119)
- Gavin Noble (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5254-243X)
- Rachel Darlinger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7674-5066)
Institutions
- West Virginia University (US)
- Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Space Science Institute (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Perimeter Institute (CA)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- York University (CA)
- Cornell University (US)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US)
- Miller College (US)
- Yale University (US)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies (CA)
- Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (FR)
- Morgantown High School (US)
- Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CA)
- Château Gombert (FR)
- Australian Resources Research Centre (AU)
- Astronomy and Space (AU)
- Banting Research Foundation (CA)
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU)
- McGill University (CA)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Chile (CL)
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (US)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (NL)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Published
- 2025-10-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adfdcc
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Seismic and Structural Analysis of Tall Buildings
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.67