Wide-field LOFAR-LBA power-spectra analyses: Impact of calibration, polarization leakage, and ionosphere

B. K. Gehlot, L. V.E. Koopmans, A. G. de Bruyn, S. Zaroubi, M. A. Brentjens, K. M.B. Asad, M. Hatef, V. Jelić, M. Mevius, A. R. Offringa, V. N. Pandey, S. Yatawatta

نتاج البحث: نشر في مجلةمقالةمراجعة النظراء

ملخص

Contamination due to foregrounds (Galactic and extragalactic), calibration errors, and ionospheric effects poses major challenges in the detection of the cosmic 21 cm signal in various epoch of reionization (EoR) experiments.We present the results of a pilot study of a field centred on 3C196 using LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) low-band (56-70MHz) observations, where we quantify various wide field and calibration effects such as gain errors, polarized foregrounds, and ionospheric effects.We observe a 'pitchfork' structure in the 2D power spectrum of the polarized intensity in delay-baseline space, which leaks into the modes beyond the instrumental horizon [EoR/CD (cosmic dawn) window]. We show that this structure largely arises due to strong instrumental polarization leakage (~30 per cent) towards CasA (~21 kJy at 81 MHz, brightest source in northern sky), which is far away from primary field of view.We measure an extremely small ionospheric diffractive scale (rdiff ≈ 430 m at 60 MHz) towards CasA resembling pure Kolmogorov turbulence compared to rdiff~ 3-20 km towards zenith at 150 MHz for typical ionospheric conditions. This is one of the smallest diffractive scales ever measured at these frequencies. Our work provides insights in understanding the nature of aforementioned effects and mitigating them in future CD observations (e.g. with Square Kilometre Array-low and Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array) in the same frequency window.

اللغة الأصليةالإنجليزيّة
الصفحات (من إلى)1484-1501
عدد الصفحات18
دوريةMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
مستوى الصوت478
رقم الإصدار2
المعرِّفات الرقمية للأشياء
حالة النشرنُشِر - 1 أغسطس 2018

ملاحظة ببليوغرافية

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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