Journal article
The challenges of low-frequency radio polarimetry: Lessons from the Murchison widefield array
E Lenc, CS Anderson, N Barry, JD Bowman, IH Cairns, JS Farnes, BM Gaensler, G Heald, M Johnston-Hollitt, DL Kaplan, CR Lynch, PI McCauley, DA Mitchell, J Morgan, MF Morales, T Murphy, AR Offringa, SM Ord, B Pindor, C Riseley Show all
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia | CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.1017/pasa.2017.36
Abstract
We present techniques developed to calibrate and correct Murchison Widefield Array low-frequency (72–300 MHz) radio observations for polarimetry. The extremely wide field-of-view, excellent instantaneous (u, v)-coverage and sensitivity to degree-scale structure that the Murchison Widefield Array provides enable instrumental calibration, removal of instrumental artefacts, and correction for ionospheric Faraday rotation through imaging techniques. With the demonstrated polarimetric capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array, we discuss future directions for polarimetric science at low frequencies to answer outstanding questions relating to polarised source counts, source depolarisation, pul..
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Awarded by Australian Government
Funding Acknowledgements
The Centre for All-sky Astrophysics (an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence funded by grant CE110001020) supported this work. This scientific work makes use of the Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory, operated by CSIRO. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. Support for the operation of the MWA is provided by the Australian Government (NCRIS), under a contract to Curtin University administered by Astronomy Australia Limited. We acknowledge the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre which is supported by the Western Australian and Australian Governments. We acknowledge 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. The Dunlap Institute is funded through an endowment established by the David Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. B. M. G. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through grant RGPIN-201505948, and of the Canada Research Chairs programme. The authors thank the anonymous referee for providing useful comments on the original version of this paper.