Image credit: D. Medlin/NRAO/AUI/NSF, SDSS III

The Caltech-NRAO Stripe 82 Survey (CNSS) is benchmark radio transient survey carried out with the Jansky VLA in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 region. The CNSS data release is planned in the second half of 2020. The full survey will deliver five epochs over the entire ∼270 deg² of Stripe 82, a deep combined map with a rms noise of ∼40 μJy and catalogs at a frequency of 3 GHz, spectral indices between 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz, at a spatial resolution of 3". This is the first wide-field survey carried out with the Jansky VLA On-the-Fly Mosaicing (OTFM) mode. The primary goal of the survey is to discover radio transients on timescales of days to years without relying on synoptic surveys at higher frequencies (i.e. optical and X-ray). The transient search is done in near-real-time to enable rapid follow-up, like with the pilot survey.