Owens Valley Solar Array, Solar and radio telescope complex in Owens Valley, California, US

The Owens Valley Solar Array is a solar radio telescope array at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Big Pine, California, operated by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Its seven antennas perform radio interferometry at up to 86 frequencies from 1 to 18 GHz, a technique called microwave imaging spectroscopy. The 2010 expansion plan called for 15 antennas, with 13 smaller dishes in a three-arm spiral spanning a 900-meter radius.

The facility came under the management of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which took over operations in 1997 and expanded research capabilities. This transition marked a turning point in how the observatory was used and developed for scientific work.

The site's name comes from the Owens Valley, where Caltech built its radio observatory in the late 1950s. The array's work on solar radio bursts fed into the Solar Radio Burst Locator, whose prototype was tested from 1994 with one antenna in Hawaii and another about 10 metres from an OVSA antenna. In 2005 the Korean government funded an evaluation that led to the Korean-SRBL.

Visitors should prepare for a technical research environment and follow safety guidelines when present at the facility. Access typically requires advance permission since the site conducts active observations and research work.

The facility uses dual-polarization capabilities across multiple antennas, an advanced technique that enables more precise and detailed measurements of solar phenomena. This specialized measurement method helps scientists capture subtle changes in solar activity that would be invisible to simpler instruments.