The LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey: Deep Fields Data Release 1. II. The ELAIS-N1 LOFAR deep field

Journal
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Sabater, J.
•
Best, P. N.
•
Tasse, C.
•
Hardcastle, M. J.
•
Shimwell, T. W.
•
Nisbet, D.
•
Jelic, V.
•
Callingham, J. R.
•
Röttgering, H. J. A.
•
•
•
Ciardi, B.
•
Cochrane, R. K.
•
Jarvis, M. J.
•
Kondapally, R.
•
Koopmans, L. V. E.
•
O'Sullivan, S. P.
•
•
Schwarz, D. J.
•
Smith, D. J. B.
•
Wang, L.
•
Williams, W. L.
•
Zaroubi, S.
DOI
Abstract
The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) will cover the full northern sky and, additionally, aims to observe the LoTSS deep fields to a noise level of ≲10 μJy beam−1 over several tens of square degrees in areas that have the most extensive ancillary data. This paper presents the ELAIS-N1 deep field, the deepest of the LoTSS deep fields to date. With an effective observing time of 163.7 h, it reaches a root mean square noise level of ≲20 μJy beam−1 in the central region (and below 30 μJy beam−1 over 10 square degrees). The resolution is ~6 arcsecs and 84 862 radio sources were detected in the full area (68 square degrees) with 74 127 sources in the highest quality area at less than 3 degrees from the pointing centre. The observation reaches a sky density of more than 5000 sources per square degree in the central region (~5 square degrees). We present the calibration procedure, which addresses the special configuration of some observations and the extended bandwidth covered (115-177 MHz; central frequency 146.2 MHz) compared to standard LoTSS. We also describe the methods used to calibrate the flux density scale using cross-matching with sources detected by other radio surveys in the literature. We find the flux density uncertainty related to the flux density scale to be ~6.5 per cent. By studying the variations of the flux density measurements between different epochs, we show that relative flux density calibration is reliable out to about a 3 degree radius, but that additional flux density uncertainty is present for all sources at about the 3 per cent level; this is likely to be associated with residual calibration errors, and is shown to be more significant in datasets with poorer ionosphere conditions. We also provide intra-band spectral indices, which can be useful to detect sources with unusual spectral properties. The final uncertainty in the flux densities is estimated to be ~10 per cent for ELAIS-N1.

Catalogs and images are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/648/A2

The data associated with this article are released at: https://lofar-surveys.org

Volume
648
Start page
A2
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0004-6361
Ads BibCode
2021A&A...648A...2S
Rights
open.access
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