1. Sub-arcsecond imaging with the International LOFAR Telescope II. Completion of the LOFAR Long-Baseline Calibrator Survey
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G. K. Miley, Annalisa Bonafede, M. P. van Haarlem, Jochen Eislöffel, John McKean, P. C. G. van Dijk, M. A. Garrett, B. Ciardi, R. Blaauw, E. Jütte, Harvey Butcher, O. Wucknitz, Luitje Koopmans, Oleg Smirnov, M. Pandey-Pommier, Pietro Zucca, Joseph R. Callingham, S. Mooney, R. J. van Weeren, A. Nelles, Antonia Rowlinson, W. Reich, Heino Falcke, S. Duscha, Rajan Chhetri, Emanuela Orrú, G. Mann, Dominik J. Schwarz, Michiel A. Brentjens, P. Zarka, M. Ruiter, Hanna Rothkaehl, Kaspars Prūsis, Ralph A. M. J. Wijers, S. Badole, Jean-Mathias Griessmeier, P. Maat, Neal Jackson, Marco Iacobelli, Jeremy J. Harwood, Andrzej Krankowski, M. J. Norden, Vishambhar Pandey, A. J. van der Horst, John Morgan, F. Sweijen, Adam Deller, George Heald, S. Damstra, Martin J. Hardcastle, Mark J. Bentum, Ashish Asgekar, Leah K. Morabito, A. W. Gunst, M. Tagger, A. Shulevski, C. Vocks, A. Drabent, Javier Moldon, A. H. W. M. Coolen, M. Paas, Atvars Nikolajevs, W. N. Brouw, J. Sluman, Roberto Pizzo, Marcus Brüggen, Henk Mulder, Matthias Hoeft, F. de Gasperin, I. M. Avruch, J. A. Zensus, Arthur Corstanje, Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay (USN), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL), École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique = Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics (LESIA), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA (UMR_8109)), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Paris (UP), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO), European Commission, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, UK Research and Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, High Energy Astrophys. & Astropart. Phys (API, FNWI), Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Center for Wireless Technology Eindhoven, and EM for Radio Science Lab
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active -Radio continuum ,active [Galaxies] ,Radio galaxy ,galaxies -Atmospheric physics ,Astronomy ,media_common.quotation_subject ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Flux ,Murchison Widefield Array ,ionosphere ,Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Surveys ,Interplanetary scintillation ,Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) ,Instrumentation ,Remote sensing ,media_common ,Physics ,Spectral index ,[SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,Radio lines: galaxies ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,interferometers [Instrumentation] ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Quasar ,LOFAR ,Galaxies: active ,interferometers -Techniques ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,galaxies [Radio lines] ,Space and Planetary Science ,Sky ,[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] ,Instrumentation: interferometers ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,Techniques: interferometric ,interferometric [Techniques] ,interferometric -Surveys -Galaxies ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics - Abstract
Full list of authors: Jackson, N.; Badole, S.; Morgan, J.; Chhetri, R.; Prūsis, K.; Nikolajevs, A.; Morabito, L.; Brentjens, M.; Sweijen, F.; Iacobelli, M.; Orrù, E.; Sluman, J.; Blaauw, R.; Mulder, H.; van Dijk, P.; Mooney, S.; Deller, A.; Moldon, J.; Callingham, J. R.; Harwood, J.; Hardcastle, M.; Heald, G.; Drabent, A.; McKean, J. P.; Asgekar, A.; Avruch, I. M.; Bentum, M. J.; Bonafede, A.; Brouw, W. N.; Brüggen, M.; Butcher, H. R.; Ciardi, B.; Coolen, A.; Corstanje, A.; Damstra, S.; Duscha, S.; Eislöffel, J.; Falcke, H.; Garrett, M.; de Gasperin, F.; Griessmeier, J. -M.; Gunst, A. W.; van Haarlem, M. P.; Hoeft, M.; van der Horst, A. J.; Jütte, E.; Koopmans, L. V. E.; Krankowski, A.; Maat, P.; Mann, G.; Miley, G. K.; Nelles, A.; Norden, M.; Paas, M.; Pandey, V. N.; Pandey-Pommier, M.; Pizzo, R. F.; Reich, W.; Rothkaehl, H.; Rowlinson, A.; Ruiter, M.; Shulevski, A.; Schwarz, D. J.; Smirnov, O.; Tagger, M.; Vocks, C.; van Weeren, R. J.; Wijers, R.; Wucknitz, O.; Zarka, P.; Zensus, J. A.; Zucca, P., The Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Long-Baseline Calibrator Survey (LBCS) was conducted between 2014 and 2019 in order to obtain a set of suitable calibrators for the LOFAR array. In this paper, we present the complete survey, building on the preliminary analysis published in 2016 which covered approximately half the survey area. The final catalogue consists of 30 006 observations of 24 713 sources in the northern sky, selected for a combination of high low-frequency radio flux density and flat spectral index using existing surveys (WENSS, NVSS, VLSS, and MSSS). Approximately one calibrator per square degree, suitable for calibration of ≥200 km baselines is identified by the detection of compact flux density, for declinations north of 30° and away from the Galactic plane, with a considerably lower density south of this point due to relative difficulty in selecting flat-spectrum candidate sources in this area of the sky. The catalogue contains indicators of degree of correlated flux on baselines between the Dutch core and each of the international stations, involving a maximum baseline length of nearly 2000 km, for all of the observations. Use of the VLBA calibrator list, together with statistical arguments by comparison with flux densities from lower-resolution catalogues, allow us to establish a rough flux density scale for the LBCS observations, so that LBCS statistics can be used to estimate compact flux densities on scales between 300 mas and 2′′, for sources observed in the survey. The survey is used to estimate the phase coherence time of the ionosphere for the LOFAR international baselines, with median phase coherence times of about 2 min varying by a few tens of percent between theshortest and longest baselines. The LBCS can be used to assess the structures of point sources in lower-resolution surveys, with significant reductions in the degree of coherence in these sources on scales between 2′′ and 300 mas. The LBCS survey sources show a greater incidence of compact flux density in quasars than in radio galaxies, consistent with unified schemes of radio sources. Comparison with samples of sources from interplanetary scintillation (IPS) studies with the Murchison Widefield Array shows consistent patterns of detection of compact structure in sources observed both interferometrically with LOFAR and using IPS. © ESO 2022., Support for the operation of the MWA is provided by the Australian Government (NCRIS), under a contract to Curtin University administered by Astronomy Australia Limited. We acknowledge the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre which is supported by the Western Australian and Australian Governments. A.D. acknowledges support by the BMBF Verbundforschung under the grant 052020. L.K.M. is grateful for support from the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (grant MR/T042842/1). J. Moldón acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709) and from the grant RTI2018-096228-B-C31 (MICIU/FEDER, EU). J.P.M. acknowledges support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, project number 629.001.023) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS, project number 114A11KYSB20170054).
- Published
- 2022