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SMA Spectral Data and Calibration Strategy

The SMA correlator can flexibly change its configuration and produce spectral data with a combination of multiple spectral resolutions and multiple bandwidths in the multiple spectral chunks (windows). It is often that the SMA data is taken from a single polarized antenna feed. The SMA correlator samples the data from individual antennas and correlates the data from each of an antenna pairs (also called baseline). A large data stream with multiple spectral windows (or chunks) in each of the upper and lower side bands are produced for a short integration time. For non-polarization observations, the solutions of the antenna gains (complex or in both amplitude and phase), bandpass (normalized bandpass shape in both amplitude and phase) and the delay term can be solved directly from the observations of calibrators. A good calibrator must be strong with a simple emission structure. A strong point source is an ideal calibrator.



Subsections

Jun-Hui Zhao (miriad for SMA)
2012-07-09