SURVEY

ASKAP-FLASH (the First Large Absorption Survey in HI) is one of nine Survey Science Projects which will be carried out with the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope.

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ASKAP is an array of 36 antennas each 12m in diameter, capable of high dynamic range imaging and using wide-field-of-view phased array feeds. ASKAP is intended to be a world-class telescope in its own right as well as a pathfinder instrument for the Square Kilometre Array.

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ASKAP's large spectral bandwidth (288 MHz bandwidth over the frequency range 700-1800 MHz) and wide field of view (30 square degrees) will open up a completely new parameter space for large, blind HI absorption-line surveys using background radio continuum sources. Since the detection limit for such surveys is independent of redshift, ASKAP-FLASH will allow us to learn about the neutral gas content of galaxies in the poorly-explored redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.0, where the HI emission line is too weak to be detectable in even the deepest ASKAP surveys.