Related papers: Calibration Challenges for Future Radio Telescopes
Calibration is a classical notion from the forecasting literature which aims to address the question: how should predicted probabilities be interpreted? In a world where we only get to observe (discrete) outcomes, how should we evaluate a…
In real telescopes, the optical parameters evolve with time, and the degradation is often not uniform. This introduces variations in the image profile and therefore photo-centre displacements which, unless corrected, may result in…
Adaptive Optics is a prime example of how progress in observational astronomy can be driven by technological developments. At many observatories it is now considered to be part of a standard instrumentation suite, enabling ground-based…
The large surveys and sensitive instruments of modern astronomy are turning ever more examples of variable objects, many of which are extending the parameter space to testing theories of stellar evolution and accretion. Future projects such…
Distributed calibration based on consensus optimization is a computationally efficient method to calibrate large radio interferometers such as LOFAR and SKA. Calibrating along multiple directions in the sky and removing the bright…
The atmosphere is an intrinsic part of any ground based Cherenkov gamma-ray telescope, and the telescope response is therefore sensitive to unpredictable changes in the atmospheric transparency which are difficult to measure and interpret…
Laser frequency combs (LFCs) are well on their way to becoming the next-generation calibration sources for precision astronomical spectroscopy. This development is considered key in the hunt for low-mass rocky exoplanets around solar-type…
The next generation of large ground-based optical and infrared telescopes will provide new challenges for designers of astronomical instrumentation. The varied science cases for these extremely large telescopes (ELTs) require a large range…
Atom-interferometer gyroscopes have attracted much attention for their potential superior long-term stability and extremely low drift. For such high precision instrument, a self-calibration to achieve an absolute rotation measurement is…
We describe and summarize the optical challenges for future instrumentation for Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). Knowing the complex instrumental requirements is crucial for the successful design of 30-60m aperture telescopes. After all,…
This thesis describes the design and implementation of several instruments for digitizing and processing analogue astronomical signals collected using radio telescopes. Modern radio telescopes have significant digital signal processing…
Typical astronomical spectrographs have a resolution ranging between a few hundred to 200.000. Deconvolution and correlation techniques are being employed with a significance down to 1/1000 th of a pixel. HeAr and ThAr lamps are usually…
The present `state of the art' and the path to future progress in high spatial resolution imaging interferometry is reviewed. The review begins with a treatment of the fundamentals of stellar optical interferometry, the origin, properties,…
The historical development of ground based astronomical telescopes leads us to expect that space-based astronomical telescopes will need to be operational for many decades. The exchange of scientific instruments in space will be a…
Residual calibration errors are difficult to predict in interferometric radio polarimetry because they depend on the employed observational calibration strategy, encompassing the Stokes vector of the calibrator and parallactic angle…
For many decades the determination of accurate fundamental parameters for stars (masses, radii, temperatures, luminosities, etc.) has mostly been the domain of eclipsing binary systems. That has begun to change as long-baseline…
Recent experiments in cosmology, particularly those aimed at detecting the faint, redshifted, global 21 cm hydrogen line (depth < ~200 mK, z > 7.5), have imposed stringent new requirements on radiometer calibration. In this work, we present…
Precision calibration poses challenges to experiments probing the redshifted 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization (z~30-6). In both interferometric and global signal experiments, systematic…
Baseline calibration of a stellar interferometer is a prerequisite to data reduction of astrometric operations. This technique of astrometry is triangulation of star positions. Since angles are deduced from the baseline and delay side of…
Modern radio astronomical facilities are able to detect extremely weak electromagnetic signals not only from the universe but also from man-made radio frequency interference of various origins. These range from wanted signals to unwanted…