MISTRAL observations during the commissioning phase at the Sardinia Radio Telescope

E. Barbavara; G. Isopi; A. Attoli; E. S. Battistelli; P. de Bernardis; F. Cacciotti; G. Carboni; E. Carretti; D. Ciccalotti; F. Columbro; A. Coppolecchia; A. Cruciani; G. D’Alessandro; M. De Petris; F. Govoni; A. Ladu; L. Lamagna; P. Marongiu; S. Masi; M. Murgia; A. Navarrini; A. Novelli; A. Occhiuzzi; A. Orlati; A. Paiella; G. Pettinari; F. Piacentini; M. Pili; T. Pisanu; S. Poppi; L. Schirru; G. P. Vargiu

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202635301001

Open Access

Issue		EPJ Web Conf. Volume 353, 2026 mm Universe 2025 - Observing the Universe at mm Wavelengths


Article Number		01001
Number of page(s)		6
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202635301001
Published online		20 February 2026

EPJ Web of Conferences 353, 01001 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202635301001

MISTRAL observations during the commissioning phase at the Sardinia Radio Telescope

E. Barbavara¹^,2^,3^,4^,5^*, G. Isopi¹^,3^,4, A. Attoli³, E. S. Battistelli¹^,4^,6, P. de Bernardis¹^,4, F. Cacciotti¹^,4, G. Carboni³, E. Carretti⁷, D. Ciccalotti¹, F. Columbro¹^,4, A. Coppolecchia¹^,4, A. Cruciani⁴, G. D’Alessandro¹^,4, M. De Petris¹^,4, F. Govoni³, A. Ladu³, L. Lamagna¹^,4, P. Marongiu³, S. Masi¹^,4, M. Murgia³, A. Navarrini³^,8, A. Novelli⁹, A. Occhiuzzi¹^,4, A. Orlati⁷, A. Paiella¹^,4, G. Pettinari¹⁰, F. Piacentini¹^,4, M. Pili³, T. Pisanu³, S. Poppi³, L. Schirru³ and G. P. Vargiu³

¹ Sapienza Università di Roma, Dipartimento di Fisica, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italy
² Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Dipartimento di Fisica, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, Roma, Italy
³ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Via della Scienza 5, Selargius (CA), Italy
⁴ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare – Sezione di Roma1, P.le A. Moro 5, Roma, Italy
⁵ University of Toronto, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 50 St. George St., Toronto, Canada
⁶ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Roma
⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Istituto di Radioastronomia, Via Gobetti 101, Bologna, Italy
⁸ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA, United States
⁹ Università di Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, Milano, Italy
¹⁰ Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie – CNR, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Roma, Italy

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 20 February 2026

Abstract

MISTRAL is a new facility instrument open to the scientific community that will help investigate the ’missing baryon’ problem, as well as many other scientific cases from extragalactic astrophysics to solar system science. The MIllimeter Sardinia radio Telescope Receiver based on Array of Lumped elements KIDs (MISTRAL) is a cryogenic W-band camera, operating at 90 GHz (frequency band 78-103 GHz), equipped with 415 LEKIDs which has been mounted at the Gregorian focus of the 64 m fully steerable radio telescope Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), in Italy, in May 2023. MISTRAL will take advantage of its 12 ′′ of angular resolution, a 4 ′ wide instantaneous field of view and its high sensitivity, which will make this camera one of the most competitive instrument to observe the mm-wave sky. MISTRAL is currently under technical commissioning and in this contribution we will report the current status and performances of the instrument as well as the operations done during the first year of technical commissioning.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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