13,569 research outputs found
The Radio Sky at Meter Wavelengths: m-Mode Analysis Imaging with the Owens Valley Long Wavelength Array
A host of new low-frequency radio telescopes seek to measure the 21-cm
transition of neutral hydrogen from the early universe. These telescopes have
the potential to directly probe star and galaxy formation at redshifts , but are limited by the dynamic range they can achieve
against foreground sources of low-frequency radio emission. Consequently, there
is a growing demand for modern, high-fidelity maps of the sky at frequencies
below 200 MHz for use in foreground modeling and removal. We describe a new
widefield imaging technique for drift-scanning interferometers,
Tikhonov-regularized -mode analysis imaging. This technique constructs
images of the entire sky in a single synthesis imaging step with exact
treatment of widefield effects. We describe how the CLEAN algorithm can be
adapted to deconvolve maps generated by -mode analysis imaging. We
demonstrate Tikhonov-regularized -mode analysis imaging using the Owens
Valley Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA) by generating 8 new maps of the sky
north of with 15 arcmin angular resolution, at frequencies
evenly spaced between 36.528 MHz and 73.152 MHz, and 800 mJy/beam thermal
noise. These maps are a 10-fold improvement in angular resolution over existing
full-sky maps at comparable frequencies, which have angular resolutions . Each map is constructed exclusively from interferometric observations
and does not represent the globally averaged sky brightness. Future
improvements will incorporate total power radiometry, improved thermal noise,
and improved angular resolution -- due to the planned expansion of the OVRO-LWA
to 2.6 km baselines. These maps serve as a first step on the path to the use of
more sophisticated foreground filters in 21-cm cosmology incorporating the
measured angular and frequency structure of all foreground contaminants.Comment: 27 pages, 18 figure
Deconvolving the Wedge: Maximum-Likelihood Power Spectra via Spherical-Wave Visibility Modeling
Direct detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) via the red-shifted 21-cm
line will have unprecedented implications on the study of structure formation
in the infant Universe. To fulfill this promise, current and future 21-cm
experiments need to detect this weak EoR signal in the presence of foregrounds
that are several orders of magnitude larger. This requires extreme noise
control and improved wide-field high dynamic-range imaging techniques. We
propose a new imaging method based on a maximum likelihood framework which
solves for the interferometric equation directly on the sphere, or equivalently
in the -domain. The method uses the one-to-one relation between spherical
waves and spherical harmonics (SpH). It consistently handles signals from the
entire sky, and does not require a -term correction. The spherical-harmonics
coefficients represent the sky-brightness distribution and the visibilities in
the -domain, and provide a direct estimate of the spatial power spectrum.
Using these spectrally-smooth SpH coefficients, bright foregrounds can be
removed from the signal, including their side-lobe noise, which is one of the
limiting factors in high dynamics range wide-field imaging. Chromatic effects
causing the so-called "wedge" are effectively eliminated (i.e. deconvolved) in
the cylindrical () power spectrum, compared to a
power spectrum computed directly from the images of the foreground visibilities
where the wedge is clearly present. We illustrate our method using simulated
LOFAR observations, finding an excellent reconstruction of the input EoR signal
with minimal bias.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures. Replaced to match accepted MNRAS version; few
typos corrected & textual clarification added (no changes to results
Imaging on a Sphere with Interferometers: the Spherical Wave Harmonic Transform
I present an exact and explicit solution to the scalar (Stokes flux
intensity) radio interferometer imaging equation on a spherical surface which
is valid also for non-coplanar interferometer configurations. This imaging
equation is comparable to -term imaging algorithms, but by using a spherical
rather than a Cartesian formulation this term has no special significance. The
solution presented also allows direct identification of the scalar (spin 0
weighted) spherical harmonics on the sky. The method should be of interest for
future multi-spacecraft interferometers, wide-field imaging with non-coplanar
arrays, and CMB spherical harmonic measurements using interferometers.Comment: (Fixed references missing in previous arxiv version). This is a
pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in
MNRAS following peer revie
The Application of the Montage Image Mosaic Engine To The Visualization Of Astronomical Images
The Montage Image Mosaic Engine was designed as a scalable toolkit, written
in C for performance and portability across *nix platforms, that assembles FITS
images into mosaics. The code is freely available and has been widely used in
the astronomy and IT communities for research, product generation and for
developing next-generation cyber-infrastructure. Recently, it has begun to
finding applicability in the field of visualization. This has come about
because the toolkit design allows easy integration into scalable systems that
process data for subsequent visualization in a browser or client. And it
includes a visualization tool suitable for automation and for integration into
Python: mViewer creates, with a single command, complex multi-color images
overlaid with coordinate displays, labels, and observation footprints, and
includes an adaptive image histogram equalization method that preserves the
structure of a stretched image over its dynamic range. The Montage toolkit
contains functionality originally developed to support the creation and
management of mosaics but which also offers value to visualization: a
background rectification algorithm that reveals the faint structure in an
image; and tools for creating cutout and down-sampled versions of large images.
Version 5 of Montage offers support for visualizing data written in HEALPix
sky-tessellation scheme, and functionality for processing and organizing images
to comply with the TOAST sky-tessellation scheme required for consumption by
the World Wide Telescope (WWT). Four online tutorials enable readers to
reproduce and extend all the visualizations presented in this paper.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in the PASP Special
Focus Issue: Techniques and Methods for Astrophysical Data Visualizatio
Simulating full-sky interferometric observations
Aperture array interferometers, such as that proposed for the Square
Kilometre Array (SKA), will see the entire sky, hence the standard approach to
simulating visibilities will not be applicable since it relies on a tangent
plane approximation that is valid only for small fields of view. We derive
interferometric formulations in real, spherical harmonic and wavelet space that
include contributions over the entire sky and do not rely on any tangent plane
approximations. A fast wavelet method is developed to simulate the visibilities
observed by an interferometer in the full-sky setting. Computing visibilities
using the fast wavelet method adapts to the sparse representation of the
primary beam and sky intensity in the wavelet basis. Consequently, the fast
wavelet method exhibits superior computational complexity to the real and
spherical harmonic space methods and may be performed at substantially lower
computational cost, while introducing only negligible error to simulated
visibilities. Low-resolution interferometric observations are simulated using
all of the methods to compare their performance, demonstrating that the fast
wavelet method is approximately three times faster that the other methods for
these low-resolution simulations. The computational burden of the real and
spherical harmonic space methods renders these techniques computationally
infeasible for higher resolution simulations. High-resolution interferometric
observations are simulated using the fast wavelet method only, demonstrating
and validating the application of this method to realistic simulations. The
fast wavelet method is estimated to provide a greater than ten-fold reduction
in execution time compared to the other methods for these high-resolution
simulations.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, replaced to match version accepted by MNRAS
(major additions to previous version including new fast wavelet method
The Keck Cosmic Web Imager
We are designing the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) as a new facility instrument for the Keck II telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO). KCWI is based on the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), an instrument that has recently had first light at the Hale Telescope. KCWI is a wide-field integral-field spectrograph (IFS) optimized for precision sky limited spectroscopy of low surface brightness phenomena. KCWI will feature high throughput, and flexibility in field of view (FOV), spatial sampling, bandpass, and spectral resolution. KCWI will provide full wavelength coverage (0.35 to 1.05 μm) using optimized blue and red channels. KCWI will provide a unique and complementary capability at WMKO (optical band integral field spectroscopy) that is directly connected to one of the Observatory's strategic goals (faint object, high precision spectroscopy), at a modest cost and on a competitive time scale, made possible by its simple concept and the prior demonstration of CWI
A fast and exact -stacking and -projection hybrid algorithm for wide-field interferometric imaging
The standard wide-field imaging technique, the -projection, allows
correction for wide-fields of view for non-coplanar radio interferometric
arrays. However, calculating exact corrections for each measurement has not
been possible due to the amount of computation required at high resolution and
with the large number of visibilities from current interferometers. The
required accuracy and computational cost of these corrections is one of the
largest unsolved challenges facing next generation radio interferometers such
as the Square Kilometre Array. We show that the same calculation can be
performed with a radially symmetric -projection kernel, where we use one
dimensional adaptive quadrature to calculate the resulting Hankel transform,
decreasing the computation required for kernel generation by several orders of
magnitude, whilst preserving the accuracy. We confirm that the radial
-projection kernel is accurate to approximately 1% by imaging the
zero-spacing with an added -term. We demonstrate the potential of our
radially symmetric -projection kernel via sparse image reconstruction, using
the software package PURIFY. We develop a distributed -stacking and
-projection hybrid algorithm. We apply this algorithm to individually
correct for non-coplanar effects in 17.5 million visibilities over a by
degree field of view MWA observation for image reconstruction. Such a
level of accuracy and scalability is not possible with standard -projection
kernel generation methods. This demonstrates that we can scale to a large
number of measurements with large image sizes whilst still maintaining both
speed and accuracy.Comment: 9 Figures, 19 Pages. Accepted to Ap
Closed-loop focal plane wavefront control with the SCExAO instrument
This article describes the implementation of a focal plane based wavefront
control loop on the high-contrast imaging instrument SCExAO (Subaru
Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics). The sensor relies on the Fourier
analysis of conventional focal-plane images acquired after an asymmetric mask
is introduced in the pupil of the instrument. This absolute sensor is used here
in a closed-loop to compensate the non-common path errors that normally affects
any imaging system relying on an upstream adaptive optics system.This specific
implementation was used to control low order modes corresponding to eight
zernike modes (from focus to spherical). This loop was successfully run on-sky
at the Subaru Telescope and is used to offset the SCExAO deformable mirror
shape used as a zero-point by the high-order wavefront sensor. The paper
precises the range of errors this wavefront sensing approach can operate within
and explores the impact of saturation of the data and how it can be bypassed,
at a cost in performance. Beyond this application, because of its low hardware
impact, APF-WFS can easily be ported in a wide variety of wavefront sensing
contexts, for ground- as well space-borne telescopes, and for telescope pupils
that can be continuous, segmented or even sparse. The technique is powerful
because it measures the wavefront where it really matters, at the level of the
science detector.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication by A&
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