The LOFAR Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS) I. Survey description and first results
Abstract
We present the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS), the first northern-sky LOFAR imaging survey. In this introductory paper, we first describe in detail the motivation and design of the survey. Compared to previous radio surveys, MSSS is exceptional due to its intrinsic multifrequency nature providing information about the spectral properties of the detected sources over more than two octaves (from 30 to 160 MHz). The broadband frequency coverage, together with the fast survey speed generated by LOFAR's multibeaming capabilities, make MSSS the first survey of the sort anticipated to be carried out with the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Two of the sixteen frequency bands included in the survey were chosen to exactly overlap the frequency coverage of large-area Very Large Array (VLA) and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) surveys at 74 MHz and 151 MHz respectively. The survey performance is illustrated within the "MSSS Verification Field" (MVF), a region of 100 square degrees centered at J2000 (RA,Dec)=(15h,69deg). The MSSS results from the MVF are compared with previous radio survey catalogs. We assess the flux and astrometric uncertainties in the catalog, as well as the completeness and reliability considering our source finding strategy. We determine the 90% completeness levels within the MVF to be 100 mJy at 135 MHz with 108" resolution, and 550 mJy at 50 MHz with 166" resolution. Images and catalogs for the full survey, expected to contain 150,000-200,000 sources, will be released to a public web server. We outline the plans for the ongoing production of the final survey products, and the ultimate public release of images and source catalogs.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1509.01257,
title = {The LOFAR Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS) I. Survey description and first results},
author = {G. H. Heald and R. F. Pizzo and E. Orrú and R. P. Breton and D. Carbone and C. Ferrari and M. J. Hardcastle and W. Jurusik and G. Macario and D. Mulcahy and D. Rafferty and A. Asgekar and M. Brentjens and R. A. Fallows and W. Frieswijk and M. C. Toribio and B. Adebahr and M. Arts and M. R. Bell and A. Bonafede and J. Bray and J. Broderick and T. Cantwell and P. Carroll and Y. Cendes and A. O. Clarke and J. Croston and S. Daiboo and F. de Gasperin and J. Gregson and J. Harwood and T. Hassall and V. Heesen and A. Horneffer and A. J. van der Horst and M. Iacobelli and V. Jelić and D. Jones and D. Kant and G. Kokotanekov and P. Martin and J. P. McKean and L. K. Morabito and B. Nikiel-Wroczyński and A. Offringa and V. N. Pandey and M. Pandey-Pommier and M. Pietka and L. Pratley and C. Riseley and A. Rowlinson and J. Sabater and A. M. M. Scaife and L. H. A. Scheers and K. Sendlinger and A. Shulevski and M. Sipior and C. Sobey and A. J. Stewart and A. Stroe and J. Swinbank and C. Tasse and J. Trüstedt and E. Varenius and S. van Velzen and N. Vilchez and R. J. van Weeren and S. Wijnholds and W. L. Williams and A. G. de Bruyn and R. Nijboer and M. Wise and A. Alexov and J. Anderson and I. M. Avruch and R. Beck and M. E. Bell and I. van Bemmel and M. J. Bentum and G. Bernardi and P. Best and F. Breitling and W. N. Brouw and M. Brüggen and H. R. Butcher and B. Ciardi and J. E. Conway and E. de Geus and A. de Jong and M. de Vos and A. Deller and R. J. Dettmar and S. Duscha and J. Eislöffel and D. Engels and H. Falcke and R. Fender and M. A. Garrett and J. Grießmeier and A. W. Gunst and J. P. Hamaker and J. W. T. Hessels and M. Hoeft and J. Hörandel and H. A. Holties and H. Intema and N. J. Jackson and E. Jütte and A. Karastergiou and W. F. A. Klijn and V. I. Kondratiev and L. V. E. Koopmans and M. Kuniyoshi and G. Kuper and C. Law and J. van Leeuwen and M. Loose and P. Maat and S. Markoff and R. McFadden and D. McKay-Bukowski and M. Mevius and J. C. A. Miller-Jones and R. Morganti and H. Munk and A. Nelles and J. E. Noordam and M. J. Norden and H. Paas and A. G. Polatidis and W. Reich and A. Renting and H. Röttgering and A. Schoenmakers and D. Schwarz and J. Sluman and O. Smirnov and B. W. Stappers and M. Steinmetz and M. Tagger and Y. Tang and S. ter Veen and S. Thoudam and R. Vermeulen and C. Vocks and C. Vogt and R. A. M. J. Wijers and O. Wucknitz and S. Yatawatta and P. Zarka},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.01257},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
23 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. MSSS Verification Field images and catalog data may be downloaded from http://vo.astron.nl