TY - GEN
T1 - An external calibrator for hydrogen observatories
AU - Jacobs, Daniel
AU - Burba, Jacob
AU - Turner, Lauren
AU - Stinnett, Benjamin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is funded by NSF AST grant # 1407646. DCJ would like to acknowledge support by the NSF under grant # 1401708.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.
PY - 2017/1/12
Y1 - 2017/1/12
N2 - The External Calibrator for Hydrogen Observatories (ECHO) is an ongoing project to develop precision calibration sources for wide-field, low frequency, radio arrays such as the Murchison Widefield Array and the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array which target 21cm radiation from primordial times. The accuracy of existing antenna beam models have been found to be a key factor limiting the realized sensitivity of the analysis pipelines. The precision required motivates us to go beyond applying a single model to each antenna in the array characterization and instead measure the response of the as-built system. We have developed a system for mapping the response pattern with a drone-mounted transmitter. Here we report a first series of tests, including our first test maps of known calibration standards and a second test mapping an MWA tile.
AB - The External Calibrator for Hydrogen Observatories (ECHO) is an ongoing project to develop precision calibration sources for wide-field, low frequency, radio arrays such as the Murchison Widefield Array and the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array which target 21cm radiation from primordial times. The accuracy of existing antenna beam models have been found to be a key factor limiting the realized sensitivity of the analysis pipelines. The precision required motivates us to go beyond applying a single model to each antenna in the array characterization and instead measure the response of the as-built system. We have developed a system for mapping the response pattern with a drone-mounted transmitter. Here we report a first series of tests, including our first test maps of known calibration standards and a second test mapping an MWA tile.
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U2 - 10.1109/CAMA.2016.7815791
DO - 10.1109/CAMA.2016.7815791
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85013220509
T3 - 2016 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications, CAMA 2016
BT - 2016 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications, CAMA 2016
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2016 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications, CAMA 2016
Y2 - 23 October 2016 through 27 October 2016
ER -