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Register a new userA new layout optimization technique for interferometric arrays, applied to the MWA
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Antenna layout is an important design consideration for radio interferometers because it determines the quality of the snapshot point spread function (PSF, or array beam). This is particularly true for experiments targeting the 21 cm Epoch of Reionization signal as the quality of the foreground subtraction depends directly on the spatial dynamic range and thus the smoothness of the baseline distribution. Nearly all sites have constraints on where antennas can be placed---even at the remote Australian location of the MWA (Murchison Widefield Array) there are rock outcrops, flood zones, heritages areas, emergency runways and trees. These exclusion areas can introduce spatial structure into the baseline distribution that enhance the PSF sidelobes and reduce the angular dynamic range. In this paper we present a new method of constrained antenna placement that reduces the spatial structure in the baseline distribution. This method not only outperforms random placement algorithms that avoid exclusion zones, but surprisingly outperforms random placement algorithms without constraints to provide what we believe are the smoothest constrained baseline distributions developed to date. We use our new algorithm to determine antenna placements for the originally planned MWA, and present the antenna locations, baseline distribution, and snapshot PSF for this array choice.
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We introduce a new pipeline for analyzing and mitigating radio frequency interference (RFI), which we call Sky-Subtracted Incoherent Noise Spectra (SSINS). SSINS is designed to identify and remove faint RFI below the single baseline thermal noise by employing a frequency-matched detection algorithm on baseline-averaged amplitudes of time-differenced visibilities. We demonstrate the capabilities of SSINS using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia. We successfully image aircraft flying over the array via digital television (DTV) reflection detected using SSINS and summarize an RFI occupancy survey of MWA Epoch of Reionization data. We describe how to use SSINS with new data using a documented, publicly available implementation with comprehensive usage tutorials.
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Extracting stellar fundamental parameters from SPectro-Interferometric (SPI) data requires reliable estimates of observables and with robust uncertainties (visibility, triple product, phase closure). A number of fine calibration procedures is necessary throughout the reduction process. Testing departures from centro-symmetry of brightness distributions is a useful complement. Developing a set of automatic routines, called SPIDAST (made available to the community) to reduce, calibrate and interpret raw data sets of instantaneous spectro-interferograms at the spectral channel level, we complement (and in some respects improve) the ones contained in the amdlib Data Reduction Software. Our new software SPIDAST is designed to work in an automatic mode, free from subjective choices, while being versatile enough to suit various processing strategies. SPIDAST performs the following automated operations: weighting of non-aberrant SPI data (visibility, triple product), fine spectral calibration (sub-pixel level), accurate and robust determinations of stellar diameters for calibrator sources (and their uncertainties as well), correction for the degradations of the interferometer response in visibility and triple product, calculation of the Centro-Symmetry Parameter (CSP) from the calibrated triple product, fit of parametric chromatic models on SPI observables, to extract model parameters. SPIDAST is currently applied to the scientific study of 18 cool giant and supergiant stars, observed with the VLTI/AMBER facility at medium resolution in the K band. Because part of their calibrators have no diameter in the current catalogs, SPIDAST provides new determinations of the angular diameters of all calibrators. Comparison of SPIDAST final calibrated observables with amdlib determinations shows good agreement, under good and poor seeing conditions.
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