Ionosphere
While the ionosphere is generally quite benign at L-band, there have been a few instances where phase instabilities have been observed which cannot be traced back to any known instrumental effects.
Ways to calibrate these errors are currently under investigation by SARAO’s Radio Astronomy Research Group.
Solar activity was at a minimum during the commissioning of MeerKAT but has been increasing since, and we expect that observations, particularly at UHF band, will be affected.