• CART Astrophysics Seminar Series

February 20, 2025 2:00 PM
PAIS 3205

Host:

Greg Taylor

Presenter:

Craig Taylor (UNM)

Cosmic radio signals detected by terrestrial radio telescopes are subject to atmospheric distortions that can corrupt interferometric visibilities if not corrected for. This effect is especially prominent at low frequencies (<100 MHz) where the dynamic ionosphere imposes a unique dispersive electromagnetic lens along the line of sight to each detector. To mitigate these effects, radio interferometers observe compact calibrator sources, such as bright radio galaxies, in order to solve for solutions to these propagation irregularities. In 2024, the Long Wavelength Array (LWA) collaboration completed construction and commissioning of the LWA - North Arm, a 64-element 'Swarm' station, forming a three element interferometer comprised of LWA1, LWA-SV, and LWA-NA. Here, I present commissioning test observation results from the LWA-NA telescope, as well as ongoing work to perform the first survey of calibration sources for the LWA Swarm interferometer.