Advanced Radio Astronomy

Catalog description

The design and operational characteristics of radio telescopes and interferometers . Properties of antennas, telescope optics, feeds, waveguides, receivers, and amplifiers. Spectrometers and spectroscopy. Sensitivity and noise. Amplitude and phase calibration, faint signal detection, astrometry, and mapping. Factors that affect radio data, including instrumental characteristics, atmospheric limitations, and propagation phenomena. The VLA and VLBA and the techniques of radio imaging by aperture synthesis. Hands-on astrophysical exercises to be solved by imaging.