Revisiting hybrid interferometry with low-frequency radio astronomy arrays

AT Sutinjo, DCX Ung, TM Colegate… - … on Antennas and …, 2017 - ieeexplore.ieee.org
AT Sutinjo, DCX Ung, TM Colegate, RB Wayth, PJ Hall, E de Lera Acedo
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2017ieeexplore.ieee.org
Radio interferometry most commonly involves antennas or antenna arrays of identical
design. The identical antenna assumption leads to a convenient and useful mathematical
simplification resulting in a scalar problem. An interesting variant to this is a “hybrid”
interferometer involving two designs. We encounter this in the characterization of low-
frequency antenna/array prototypes using a homogenous low-frequency array telescope
such as the Murchison Widefield Array. In this paper, we present an interferometry equation …
Radio interferometry most commonly involves antennas or antenna arrays of identical design. The identical antenna assumption leads to a convenient and useful mathematical simplification resulting in a scalar problem. An interesting variant to this is a “hybrid” interferometer involving two designs. We encounter this in the characterization of low-frequency antenna/array prototypes using a homogenous low-frequency array telescope such as the Murchison Widefield Array. In this paper, we present an interferometry equation that applies to hybrid antennas. The resulting equation involves vector inner products rather than scalar multiplications. We discuss physical interpretation and useful applications of this concept in the areas of sensitivity measurement and calibration of an antenna/array under test using a compact calibrator source.
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