Product Description
Comprehensive, authoritative coverage of interferometric techniques for radio astronomy
In this Second Edition of Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy, three leading figures in the development of large imaging arrays, including very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI), describe and explain the technology that provides images of the universe with an angular resolution as fine as 1/20,000 of an arcsecond.
This comprehensive volume begins with a historical review followed by detailed coverage of the theory of interferometry and synthesis imaging, analysis of interferometer response, geometrical relationships, polarimetry, antennas, and arrays. Discussion of the receiving system continues with analysis of the response to signals and noise, analog design requirements, and digital signal processing.
The authors detail special requirements of VLBI including atomic frequency standards, broadband recording systems, and antennas in orbit. Further major topics include:
- Calibration of data and synthesis of images
- Image enhancement using nonlinear algorithms
- Techniques for astrometry and geodesy
- Propagation in the neutral atmosphere and ionized media
- Radio interference
- Related techniques: intensity interferometry, moon occultations, antenna holography, and optical interferometry
Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy, Second Edition is comprehensive in that it provides an excellent overview of most radio astronomical instrumentation and techniques.
Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy
Tags: interferometry and synthesis in radio astronomy, Second, atomic frequency standards, Coverage, edition, intensity interferometry
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You can think of this as a course in very specialised antenna design. Certainly, the broad concepts would be immediately recognisable to any engineer who has built antennas. But here the sources that are being detected are at far reaches indeed. Correspondingly, the sizes of each radio dish far exceeds your typical antenna in industrial or military use.
Of course, the book points out that radio telescopes further enhance their resolving power by positioning these dishes at precise distances from each other, and adjusting the phases of incoming signals accordingly. To someone new to radio astronomy, one of the impressive achievements is that an array of dishes can thus be combined into one large telescope, spanning several kilometers.
The book then shows how this is taken to a logical limit of VLBI. Where arrays at different locations across the globe might combine their signals, giving a telescope comparable to the size of the globe, for greater resolution. A tribute to how engineering helps drive advances in pure research.
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