Compression of interferometric radio-astronomical data

The volume of radio-astronomical data is a considerable burden in the processing and storing of radio observations with high time and frequency resolutions and large bandwidths. Lossy compression of interferometric radio-astronomical data is considered to reduce the volume of visibility data and to speed up processing. A new compression technique named "Dysco" is introduced that consists of two steps: a normalization step, in which grouped visibilities are normalized to have a similar distribution; and a quantization and encoding step, which rounds values to a given quantization scheme using a dithering scheme. Several non-linear quantization schemes are tested and combined with different methods for normalizing the data. Four data sets with observations from the LOFAR and MWA telescopes are processed with different processing strategies and different combinations of normalization and quantization. The effects of compression are measured in image plane. The noise added by the lossy compression technique acts like normal system noise. The accuracy of Dysco is depending on the signal-to-noise ratio of the data: noisy data can be compressed with a smaller loss of image quality. Data with typical correlator time and frequency resolutions can be compressed by a factor of 6.4 for LOFAR and 5.3 for MWA observations with less than 1% added system noise. An implementation of the compression technique is released that provides a Casacore storage manager and allows transparent encoding and decoding. Encoding and decoding is faster than the read/write speed of typical disks. The technique can be used for LOFAR and MWA to reduce the archival space requirements for storing observed data. Data from SKA-low will likely be compressible by the same amount as LOFAR. The same technique can be used to compress data from other telescopes, but a different bit-rate might be required.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 13 pages, 8 figures. Abstract was abridge

Multi-frequency image reconstruction for radio-interferometry with self-tuned regularization parameters

As the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will provide radio interferometric data with unprecedented detail. Image reconstruction algorithms for radio interferometry are challenged to scale well with TeraByte image sizes never seen before. In this work, we investigate one such 3D image reconstruction algorithm known as MUFFIN (MUlti-Frequency image reconstruction For radio INterferometry). In particular, we focus on the challenging task of automatically finding the optimal regularization parameter values. In practice, finding the regularization parameters using classical grid search is computationally intensive and nontrivial due to the lack of ground- truth. We adopt a greedy strategy where, at each iteration, the optimal parameters are found by minimizing the predicted Stein unbiased risk estimate (PSURE). The proposed self-tuned version of MUFFIN involves parallel and computationally efficient steps, and scales well with large- scale data. Finally, numerical results on a 3D image are presented to showcase the performance of the proposed approach

The importance of detailed epigenomic profiling of different cell types within organs.

The human body consists of hundreds of kinds of cells specified from a single genome overlaid with cell type-specific epigenetic information. Comprehensively profiling the body's distinct epigenetic landscapes will allow researchers to verify cell types used in regenerative medicine and to determine the epigenetic effects of disease, environmental exposures and genetic variation. Key marks/factors that should be investigated include regions of nucleosome-free DNA accessible to regulatory factors, histone marks defining active enhancers and promoters, DNA methylation levels, regulatory RNAs, and factors controlling the three-dimensional conformation of the genome. Here we use the lung to illustrate the importance of investigating an organ's purified cell epigenomes, and outline the challenges and promise of realizing a comprehensive catalog of primary cell epigenomes

FLAGCAL:A flagging and calibration package for radio interferometric data

We describe a flagging and calibration pipeline intended for making quick look images from GMRT data. The package identifies and flags corrupted visibilities, computes calibration solutions and interpolates these onto the target source. These flagged calibrated visibilities can be directly imaged using any standard imaging package. The pipeline is written in "C" with the most compute intensive algorithms being parallelized using OpenMP.Comment: 15 Pages, 6 figures, 2 Tables, Accepted for publication in the Experimental Astronomy Journa

A morphological algorithm for improving radio-frequency interference detection

A technique is described that is used to improve the detection of radio-frequency interference in astronomical radio observatories. It is applied on a two-dimensional interference mask after regular detection in the time-frequency domain with existing techniques. The scale-invariant rank (SIR) operator is defined, which is a one-dimensional mathematical morphology technique that can be used to find adjacent intervals in the time or frequency domain that are likely to be affected by RFI. The technique might also be applicable in other areas in which morphological scale-invariant behaviour is desired, such as source detection. A new algorithm is described, that is shown to perform quite well, has linear time complexity and is fast enough to be applied in modern high resolution observatories. It is used in the default pipeline of the LOFAR observatory.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Kleine mantelmeeuwen <i>Larus fuscus</i> in de zuidelijke Noordzee in augustus en september 1995 = Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the southern North Sea in August and September 1995

The Institute of Nature Conservation conducted seabird counts onboard of the 'R.V. Belgica' between 28 August and 8 September, intended to estimate the stock of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the southern North Sea, In total 1182 km were surveyed in the area situated between 51° and 54°30' latitude, using the standard strip-transect method. In order to compensate for underestimation caused by congregation of gulls around fishing vessels, the density of the fishing vessels was estimated by using a line transect method. In total 9193 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were recorded, of which 612 were located 'in transect' during the strip-transect counts (353.9 km²). It was appraised that the average density of birds was 1.73/km². The overall density of vessels was approximately 0,0053/km² in a selected area of 57 000 km², with an mean flocksize of 96.6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls per ship. Summing up these two figures, it can be estimated that 100 000 - 150 000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls occurred in the southern North Sea in this period. The highest densities were found off the Belgian and Dutch coast, between Zeebrugge and Katwijk. Another patch with high density was located off NE Norfolk. The majority was associated with fishing vessels (74%, n=9193), although a group of self-feeding birds was seen off the English coast