Primary beam effects of radio astronomy antennas - II. modelling MeerKAT L-band beams

dc.contributor.authorAsad, K.M.B.
dc.contributor.authorGirard, J.N.
dc.contributor.authorDe Villiers, M.M.
dc.contributor.authorAnsah-Narh, T.
dc.contributor.authorIheanetu, K.
dc.contributor.authorSmirnov, Oleg M.
dc.contributor.authorSantos, M.G.
dc.contributor.authorLehmensiek, R.
dc.contributor.authorJonas, J.
dc.contributor.authorDe Villiers, D.I.L.
dc.contributor.authorThorat, Kshitij
dc.contributor.authorHugo, Benjamin V.
dc.contributor.authorMakhathini, Sphesihle
dc.contributor.authorJozsa, Gyula I.G.
dc.contributor.authorSirothia, S.K.
dc.date.accessioned2021-12-08T13:17:45Z
dc.date.available2021-12-08T13:17:45Z
dc.date.issued2021-02
dc.description.abstractAfter a decade of design and construction, South Africa’s SKA-MID precursor MeerKAT has begun its science operations. To make full use of the widefield capability of the array, it is imperative that we have an accurate model of the primary beam of its antennas. We have taken available L-band full-polarization ‘astro-holographic’ observations of three antennas and a generic electromagnetic simulation and created sparse representations of the beams using principal components and Zernike polynomials. The spectral behaviour of the spatial coefficients has been modelled using discrete cosine transform. We have provided the Zernike-based model over a diameter of 10 degrees averaged over the beams of three antennas in an associated software tool (EIDOS) that can be useful in direction-dependent calibration and imaging. The model is more accurate for the diagonal elements of the beam Jones matrix and at lower frequencies. As we get more accurate beam measurements and simulations in the future, especially for the cross-polarization patterns, our pipeline can be used to create more accurate sparse representations of MeerKAT beams.en_ZA
dc.description.departmentPhysicsen_ZA
dc.description.librarianpm2021en_ZA
dc.description.urihttp://mnras.oxfordjournals.orgen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationAsad, K.M.B., Girard, J.N., De Villiers, M. 2021, 'Primary beam effects of radio astronomy antennas - II. Modelling MeerKAT L-band beams', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 502, no. 2, pp. 2970-2983.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn0035-8711 (print)
dc.identifier.issn1365-2966 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1093/mnras/stab104
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/83001
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherOxford University Pressen_ZA
dc.rights© 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.en_ZA
dc.subjectAstronomical instrumentationen_ZA
dc.subjectInterferometric techniquesen_ZA
dc.subjectMeerKATen_ZA
dc.subjectInstrumentationen_ZA
dc.subjectInterferometersen_ZA
dc.subjectMethods: data analysisen_ZA
dc.subjectTechniques: image processingen_ZA
dc.subjectTechniques: interferometricsen_ZA
dc.titlePrimary beam effects of radio astronomy antennas - II. modelling MeerKAT L-band beamsen_ZA
dc.typePreprint Articleen_ZA

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