Precision Calibration of Radio Interferometers Using Redundant Baselines

Growing interest in 21 cm tomography has led to the design and construction of broadband radio interferometers with low noise, moderate angular resolution, high spectral resolution, and wide fields of view. With characteristics somewhat different from traditional radio instruments, these interferometers may require new calibration techniques in order to reach their design sensitivities. Self-calibration or redundant calibration techniques that allow an instrument to be calibrated off complicated sky emission structures are ideal. In particular, the large number of redundant baselines possessed by these new instruments makes redundant calibration an especially attractive option. In this paper, we explore the errors and biases in existing redundant calibration schemes through simulations, and show how statistical biases can be eliminated. We also develop a general calibration formalism that includes both redundant baseline methods and basic point source calibration methods as special cases, and show how slight deviations from perfect redundancy and coplanarity can be taken into account.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures; Replaced to match accepted MNRAS versio

Habitat selection by calving caribou of the Central Arctic Herd, 1980-95

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2000Habitat selection by calving caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) of the Central Arctic Herd, Alaska, was assessed in relation to distance from roads, vegetation type, relative plant biomass (NDVI; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), accumulation of plant biomass during early lactation (NDVIrate), snow cover, and terrain ruggedness. From 183 calving sites of 96 radio collared- females, 1980-95, calving distribution was estimated in reference (no development) and treatment (oilfields present) zones east and west of the Sagavanirktok River, respectively. In the reference zone, caribou regularly selected wet-graminoid vegetation, above-median NDVIrate, and non-rugged terrain; concentrated calving remained in habitats with zonal average NDVI on 21 June (NDVI621). In the treatment zone, selection patterns were inconsistent; concentrated calving shifted inland to rugged terrainwith low NDVI621 and away from development. Repeated use of lower-quality habitats in the treatment zone could compromise nutrient intake by calving females, thereby depressing reproductive success of the western-segment of the herd

Optimal Moments for the Analysis of Peculiar Velocity Surveys II: Testing

Analyses of peculiar velocity surveys face several challenges, including low signal--to--noise in individual velocity measurements and the presence of small--scale, nonlinear flows. This is the second in a series of papers in which we describe a new method of overcoming these problems by using data compression as a filter with which to separate large--scale, linear flows from small--scale noise that can bias results. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method using realistic catalogs of galaxy velocities drawn from N--body simulations. Our tests show that a likelihood analysis of simulated catalogs that uses all of the information contained in the peculiar velocities results in a bias in the estimation of the power spectrum shape parameter $\Gamma$ and amplitude $\beta$, and that our method of analysis effectively removes this bias. We expect that this new method will cause peculiar velocity surveys to re--emerge as a useful tool to determine cosmological parameters.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Interactive Teaching Tools for Spatial Sampling

The statistical analysis of data which is measured over a spatial region is well established as a scientific tool which makes considerable contributions to a wide variety of application areas. Further development of these tools also remains a central part of the research scene in statistics. However, understanding of the concepts involved often benefits from an intuitive and experimental approach, as well as a formal description of models and methods. This paper describes software which is intended to assist in this understanding. The role of simulation is advocated, in order to explain the meaning of spatial correlation and to interpret the parameters involved in standard models. Realistic scenarios where decisions on the locations of sampling points in a spatial setting are required are also described. Students are provided with a variety of sampling strategies and invited to select the most appropriate one in two different settings. One involves water sampling in the lagoon of the Mururoa Atoll while the other involves sea bed sampling in a Scottish firth. Once a student has decided on a sampling strategy, simulated data are provided for further analysis. This extends the range of teaching activity from the analysis of data collected by others to involvement in data collection and the need to grapple with issues of design. It is argued that this approach has significant benefits in learning.

Downtown Winnipeg: Demographics, Population Density, and Grocery Store Locations

map: 2 pp.; ill., digital fileThis map presents an overview of demographics and population density and compares it to the location of downtown grocery stores

Analysing the SML97 Definition: Lexicalisation

The specification of the syntax and semantics for Standard ML have been designed to support the generation of a compiler front end, but actual implementations have required significant modification to the specification. Since the specification was written there have been major advances in the development of language analysis systems that can handle general syntax specifications. We are revisiting the SML specification to consider to what extent, using modern tooling, it can be implemented exactly as originally written. In this short paper we focus on the lexical specification