학술논문
Sub-arcsecond imaging with the International LOFAR Telescope I. Foundational calibration strategy and pipeline
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Morabito, L. K.; Jackson, N. J.; Mooney, S.; Sweijen, F.; Badole, S.; Kukreti, P.; Venkattu, D.; Groeneveld, C.; Kappes, A.; Bonnassieux, E.; Drabent, A.; Iacobelli, M.; Croston, J. H.; Best, P. N.; Bondi, M.; Callingham, J. R.; Conway, J. E.; Deller, A. T.; Hardcastle, M. J.; McKean, J. P.; Miley, G. K.; Moldon, J.; Röttgering, H. J. A.; Tasse, C.; Shimwell, T. W.; van Weeren, R. J.; Anderson, J. M.; Asgekar, A.; Avruch, I. M.; van Bemmel, I. M.; Bentum, M. J.; Bonafede, A.; Brouw, W. N.; Butcher, H. R.; Ciardi, B.; Corstanje, A.; Coolen, A.; Damstra, S.; de Gasperin, F.; Duscha, S.; Eislöffel, J.; Engels, D.; Falcke, H.; Garrett, M. A.; Griessmeier, J.; Gunst, A. W.; van Haarlem, M. P.; Hoeft, M.; van der Horst, A. J.; Jütte, E.; Kadler, M.; Koopmans, L. V. E.; Krankowski, A.; Mann, G.; Nelles, A.; Oonk, J. B. R.; Orru, E.; Paas, H.; Pandey, V. N.; Pizzo, R. F.; Pandey-Pommier, M.; Reich, W.; Rothkaehl, H.; Ruiter, M.; Schwarz, D. J.; Shulevski, A.; Soida, M.; Tagger, M.; Vocks, C.; Wijers, R. A. M. J.; Wijnholds, S. J.; Wucknitz, O.; Zarka, P.; Zucca, P.
Source
A&A 658, A1 (2022)
Subject
Language
Abstract
[abridged] The International LOFAR Telescope is an interferometer with stations spread across Europe. With baselines of up to ~2,000 km, LOFAR has the unique capability of achieving sub-arcsecond resolution at frequencies below 200 MHz, although this is technically and logistically challenging. Here we present a calibration strategy that builds on previous high-resolution work with LOFAR. We give an overview of the calibration strategy and discuss the special challenges inherent to enacting high-resolution imaging with LOFAR, and describe the pipeline, which is publicly available, in detail. We demonstrate the calibration strategy by using the pipeline on P205+55, a typical LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) pointing. We perform in-field delay calibration, solution referencing to other calibrators, self-calibration, and imaging of example directions of interest in the field. For this specific field and these ionospheric conditions, dispersive delay solutions can be transferred between calibrators up to ~1.5 degrees away, while phase solution transferral works well over 1 degree. We demonstrate a check of the astrometry and flux density scale. Imaging in 17 directions, the restoring beam is typically 0.3" x 0.2" although this varies slightly over the entire 5 square degree field of view. We achieve ~80 to 300 $\mu$Jy/bm image rms noise, which is dependent on the distance from the phase centre; typical values are ~90 $\mu$Jy/bm for the 8 hour observation with 48 MHz of bandwidth. Seventy percent of processed sources are detected, and from this we estimate that we should be able to image ~900 sources per LoTSS pointing. This equates to ~3 million sources in the northern sky, which LoTSS will entirely cover in the next several years. Future optimisation of the calibration strategy for efficient post-processing of LoTSS at high resolution (LoTSS-HR) makes this estimate a lower limit.
Comment: Accepted to a special issue of A&A on sub-arcsecond imaging with LOFAR. 24 pages, 16 figures
Comment: Accepted to a special issue of A&A on sub-arcsecond imaging with LOFAR. 24 pages, 16 figures