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Calibration of LOFAR

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Low Frequency Radio Astronomy and the LOFAR Observatory

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 426))

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Abstract

Calibrating the raw visibility data from radio interferometers in order to remove the effects of the instrument and the atmosphere is needed to achieve the desired scientific outcome. Here, the processes required to calibrate data from LOFAR, after applying the pre-processing steps, are discussed. In particular, the calibration philosophy and usage of the LOFAR calibration software is discussed in detail.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The dynamic range is the ratio between the peak brightness and an estimate of the noise in an image. High-quality images have high dynamic range.

  2. 2.

    For the HBA, each tile beam is formed from 16 dipoles within each tile. Here, an analogue beamformer is used at the tile level to combine these dipoles to form a tile beam that is controlled at station level.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Roberto Pizzo and George Heald for useful discussions, and the large number of developers and commissioners who have contributed to developing the calibration strategies that are summarised here.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASTRON, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

    John McKean & Ger de Bruyn

  2. Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    John McKean

Authors
  1. John McKean
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  2. Ger de Bruyn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John McKean .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Kensington, WA, Australia

    George Heald

  2. Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    John McKean

  3. ASTRON, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

    Roberto Pizzo

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McKean, J., de Bruyn, G. (2018). Calibration of LOFAR. In: Heald, G., McKean, J., Pizzo, R. (eds) Low Frequency Radio Astronomy and the LOFAR Observatory. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 426. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23434-2_5

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