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LOFAR facet calibration

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TLDR
In this paper, a new calibration scheme, which is named facet calibration, was proposed to obtain deep high-resolution LOFAR High Band Antenna images using the Dutch part of the array.
Abstract
LOFAR, the Low-Frequency Array, is a powerful new radio telescope operating between 10 and 240 MHz. LOFAR allows detailed sensitive high-resolution studies of the low-frequency radio sky. At the same time LOFAR also provides excellent short baseline coverage to map diffuse extended emission. However, producing high-quality deep images is challenging due to the presence of direction dependent calibration errors, caused by imperfect knowledge of the station beam shapes and the ionosphere. Furthermore, the large data volume and presence of station clock errors present additional difficulties. In this paper we present a new calibration scheme, which we name facet calibration, to obtain deep high-resolution LOFAR High Band Antenna images using the Dutch part of the array. This scheme solves and corrects the direction dependent errors in a number of facets that cover the observed field of view. Facet calibration provides close to thermal noise limited images for a typical 8 hr observing run at $\sim$ 5arcsec resolution, meeting the specifications of the LOFAR Tier-1 northern survey.

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Journal ArticleDOI

The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey. I. Survey description and preliminary data release

Timothy W. Shimwell, +85 more
TL;DR: The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) as mentioned in this paper is a deep 120-168 MHz imaging survey that will eventually cover the entire northern sky, where each of the 3170 pointings will be observed for 8 h, which, at most declinations, is sufficient to produce ~5? resolution images with a sensitivity of ~100?Jy/beam and accomplish the main scientific aims of the survey, which are to explore the formation and evolution of massive black holes, galaxies, clusters of galaxies and large-scale structure.
Journal ArticleDOI

The GMRT 150 MHz All-sky Radio Survey: First Alternative Data Release TGSS ADR1

TL;DR: The first full release of a survey of the 150 MHz radio sky, observed with the giant metrewave radio telescope between April 2010 and March 2012 as part of the TGSS project is presented in this article.
Journal ArticleDOI

LOFAR 150-MHz observations of the Boötes field: catalogue and source counts

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented the first wide area (19 deg(2)), deep (a parts per thousand 120-150 mu Jy beam(-1)), high-resolution (5.6 x 7.4 arcsec) LOFAR High Band Antenna image of the Bootes field made at 130-169 MHz.
Journal ArticleDOI

An optimized algorithm for multiscale wideband deconvolution of radio astronomical images

TL;DR: An improved multi-scale deconvolution algorithm that can also be used in multi-frequency mode, and a new scale-bias function for use inMulti-scale cleaning.
References
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Book

Spatial Tessellations: Concepts and Applications of Voronoi Diagrams

TL;DR: In this article, the Voronoi diagram generalizations of the Voroni diagram algorithm for computing poisson Voroni diagrams are defined and basic properties of the generalization of Voroni's algorithm are discussed.
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AIPS, the VLA, and the VLBA

TL;DR: The history and general structure of this software package are reviewed and a number of the scientific achievements for which it has been used are summarized.

Spatial Tessellations Concepts And Applications Of Voronoi Diagrams

TL;DR: Spatial tessellations concepts and applications of voronoi diagrams, but end up in infectious downloads instead of enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their laptop.
Journal ArticleDOI

wsclean: an implementation of a fast, generic wide-field imager for radio astronomy

A. R. Offringa, +64 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a wide-field interferometric imager that uses the w-stacking algorithm and can make use of the W-snapshot algorithm, which is an order of magnitude faster than w-projection, as well as being capable of full-sky imaging at full resolution with correct polarization correction.
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