[1] The instruments of the observatory are designed and employed specifically for studying the activities and phenomena of our solar system's sun.

[5] At that time Dale Gary, who was a research associate in Astrophysics at Caltech[1] and the Principal Investigator at the Owens Valley Solar Array lab, moved to NJIT to become a faculty member.

[3][6] In 2010, NJIT proposed to expand the Owens Valley Solar Array to add 8 additional 2.1-meter (6.9 ft) and upgrade the older antennas.

The combination of spatial and spectral resolution is called microwave imaging spectroscopy, which provides rich diagnostic information about the Sun.

In the 1990s, the United States Air Force was looking for a cost-effective replacement of its aging Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN) which was operated in fixed frequencies.

Caltech team proposed the Solar Radio Burst Locator (SRBL) which would use the technique of frequency agility that was studied at the OVSA.

Under a contract with the United States Air Force, prototypes were developed at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory.

The system observed the full solar disk was able to locate microwave burst positions by a single dish without using interferometry or mechanical scanning.