Incorporation of antenna primary beam patterns in radio-interferometric data reduction to produce wide-field, high-dynamic-range images

The direction- and frequency-dependence of the primary beam gain pattern of a dish antenna pose one of the most challenging problems in radio-interferometric data reduction. In this paper, we present a new method of incorporating the beam during the calibration process, using a simulated beam model and the Multi-Term Multi-Frequency Synthesis algorithm. We have imaged JVLA data of the field around the radio source 3C147 out to the second sidelobe; the image has an unprecedented dynamic range of 5,000,000∶1.