Phased Array Feed Calibration, Beamforming and Imaging

Abstract

Phased array feeds (PAFs) for reflector antennas offer the potential for increased reflector field of view and faster survey speeds. To address some of the development challenges that remain for scientifically useful PAFs, including calibration and beamforming algorithms, sensitivity optimization, and demonstration of wide field of view imaging, we report experimental results from a 19 element room temperature L-band PAF mounted on the Green Bank 20-Meter Telescope. Formed beams achieved an aperture efficiency of 69% and system noise temperature of 66 K. Radio camera images of several sky regions are presented. We investigate the noise performance and sensitivity of the system as a function of elevation angle with statistically optimal beamforming and demonstrate cancelation of radio frequency interference sources with adaptive spatial filtering.

19 pages, 13 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder: System Architecture and Specifications of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array
• Accurate Galactic 21-cm H I measurements with the NRAO Green Bank Telescope
• Measured Sensitivity of the First Mark II Phased Array Feed on an ASKAP Antenna
• Commissioning the HI Observing Mode of the Beamformer for the Cryogenically Cooled Focal L-band Array for the GBT (FLAG)
• Characterising the Apertif primary beam response
• Prospects for cosmological research with the FAST array: 21-cm intensity mapping survey observation strategies