Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/24695| Title: | The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation | Authors: | Offringa, A. R. Wayth, R. B. Hurley-Walker, N. Kaplan, D. L. Barry, N. Beardsley, A. P. Bell, M. E. BERNARDI, GIANNI Bowman, J. D. Briggs, F. Callingham, J. R. Cappallo, R. J. Carroll, P. Deshpande, A. A. Dillon, J. S. Dwarakanath, K. S. Ewall-Wice, A. Feng, L. For, B. -Q. Gaensler, B. M. Greenhill, L. J. Hancock, P. Hazelton, B. J. Hewitt, J. N. Hindson, L. Jacobs, D. C. Johnston-Hollitt, M. Kapińska, A. D. Kim, H. -S. Kittiwisit, P. Lenc, E. Line, J. Loeb, A. Lonsdale, C. J. McKinley, B. McWhirter, S. R. Mitchell, D. A. Morales, M. F. Morgan, E. Morgan, J. Neben, A. R. Oberoi, D. Ord, S. M. Paul, S. Pindor, B. Pober, J. C. Prabu, T. Procopio, P. Riding, J. Udaya Shankar, N. Sethi, S. Srivani, K. S. Staveley-Smith, L. Subrahmanyan, R. Sullivan, I. S. Tegmark, M. Thyagarajan, N. Tingay, S. J. Trott, C. M. Webster, R. L. Williams, A. Williams, C. L. Wu, C. Wyithe, J. S. Zheng, Q. |
Issue Date: | 2015 | Journal: | PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA | Number: | 32 | First Page: | e008 | Abstract: | The Murchison Widefield Array is a new low-frequency interferometric radio telescope built in Western Australia at one of the locations of the future Square Kilometre Array. We describe the automated radio-frequency interference detection strategy implemented for the Murchison Widefield Array, which is based on the aoflagger platform, and present 72-231 MHz radio-frequency interference statistics from 10 observing nights. Radio-frequency interference detection removes 1.1% of the data. Radio-frequency interference from digital TV is observed 3% of the time due to occasional ionospheric or atmospheric propagation. After radio-frequency interference detection and excision, almost all data can be calibrated and imaged without further radio-frequency interference mitigation efforts, including observations within the FM and digital TV bands. The results are compared to a previously published Low-Frequency Array radio-frequency interference survey. The remote location of the Murchison Widefield Array results in a substantially cleaner radio-frequency interference environment compared to Low-Frequency Array's radio environment, but adequate detection of radio-frequency interference is still required before data can be analysed. We include specific recommendations designed to make the Square Kilometre Array more robust to radio-frequency interference, including: the availability of sufficient computing power for radio-frequency interference detection; accounting for radio-frequency interference in the receiver design; a smooth band-pass response; and the capability of radio-frequency interference detection at high time and frequency resolution (second and kHz-scale respectively). | Acknowledgments: | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This scientific work makes use of the NCI National Facility in Canberra, Australia, which is supported by the Australian Commonwealth Government. This scientific work makes use of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, operated by CSIRO. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. Support for the MWA comes from the U.S. National Science Foundation (grants AST-0457585, PHY-0835713, CAREER-0847753, and AST-0908884), the Australian Research Council (LIEF grants LE0775621 and LE0882938), the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (grant FA9550-0510247), and the Centre for All-sky Astrophysics (an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence funded by grant CE110001020). Support is also provided by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the MIT School of Science, the Raman Research Institute, the Australian National University, and the Victoria University of Wellington (via grant MED-E1799 from the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development and an IBM Shared University Research Grant). The Australian Federal government ***provides additional support via the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, Education Investment Fund, and the Australia India Strategic Research Fund, and Astronomy Australia Limited, under contract to Curtin University. We acknowledge the iVEC Petabyte Data Store, the Initiative in Innovative Computing and the CUDA Center for Excellence sponsored by NVIDIA at Harvard University, and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), a Joint Venture of Curtin University and The University of Western Australia, funded by the Western Australian State government. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/24695 | URL: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/publications-of-the-astronomical-society-of-australia/article/lowfrequency-environment-of-the-murchison-widefield-array-radiofrequency-interference-analysis-and-mitigation/DCBEF7DF93C8452FDF7E15E8398EED9D | ISSN: | 1448-6083 | DOI: | 10.1017/pasa.2015.7 | Bibcode ADS: | 2015PASA...32....8O | Fulltext: | open |
| Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offringa2015.pdf | pdf editoriale (open access) | 1.22 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Page view(s)
69
checked on Jan 20, 2025
Download(s)
39
checked on Jan 20, 2025
Google ScholarTM
Check
Altmetric
Altmetric
Items in DSpace are published in Open Access, unless otherwise indicated.