ASTR 3520

Observations & I nstrumentation I I :

Spectroscopy
I ntro to
Radio Astronomy
Intro to Radio Astronomy

Concepts
- Amplifiers
- Mixers (down-conversion)
- Principles of Radar
- Radio Astronomy basics:
System temperature, Receiver temperature
Brightness temperature,
The beam (q = l / D) [ its usually BIG]
Interferometry (c.f. the Very Large Array VLA)
Aperture synthesis



Detection of EM Radiation Across the Spectrum
g-ray X-ray UV Visible NIR TIR sub-mm mm cm
radio

>MeV 0.2 100 keV 4000 10,000A 3 200 mm 1 10 mm >1 cm
100 4000 A 1 3 mm 200 mm 1000mm
Incoherent detection Coherent detection
- Particle properties - Wave properties
(photons)
- Energy, arrival time - Amplitude, phase
- quantum noise:
T
rec
> hn / 2
Transmission
l
History of Radio Astronomy
(the second window on the Universe)

1929 - Karl Jansky (Bell Telephone Labs)
1030s - Grote Reber
1940s - WWII, radar
- 21 cm (Jan Oort etc.)
1950s - Early single dish & interferometry
- `radio stars, first map of Milky Way
- Cambridge surveys (3C etc)
1960s - quasars, pulsars, CMB, radar, VLBI
aperture synthesis, molecules, masers (cm)
1970s - CO, molecular clouds, astro-chemistry (mm)
1980s /90s CMB anisotropy, (sub-mm)






Karl Jansky, Holmdel NJ, 1929
300 m dish at Arecibo: q = l / D ~ 48 at l = 6 cm (5 GHz)
408 MHz radio sky
Outline
A Simple Heterodyne Receiver System
mixers and amplification
Observing in the Radio
resolution
brightness temperature
Radio Interferometry
Aperture synthesis
Mixers
signal in
LO
local oscillator
w
1
w
2
signal out
w
1
+w
2

and
w
1
-w
2
A mixer takes two inputs:
the signal and a local
oscillator (LO).
The mixer outputs the sum
and difference frequencies.
In radio astronomy, we
usually filter out the high
frequency (sum) component.
Mixers
frequency
s
i
g
n
a
l

LO
original
signal
mixed
signal
0 Hz
Mixers
frequency
s
i
g
n
a
l

LO
original
signal
mixed
signal
The negative
frequencies in the
difference appear the
same as a positive
frequency.
To avoid this, we can
use Single Sideband
Mixers (SSBs) which
eliminate the negative
frequency components.
0 Hz
W-band
(94 GHz,
4 mm)
amplifier

Local oscillator
Downconverted signal
Frequency
Single sideband mixer:
Band-pass of amplifier:
Intermediate frequency = IF
Local oscillator
Amplifier passband
Frequency
Lower sideband
Upper sideband
F
LO
F
IF
Double sideband mixer:
Local oscillator
Amplifier passband
Frequency
Lower sideband
Upper sideband
F
LO
F
IF
ASTR 3520
I ntro to Radio Aastronomy:
Review heterodyne & mixing
Radar examples: cars, Venus (review)
Single dish spectroscopy
Orion nebula CO example
Radiometer equation (noise vs, exposure time)
I nterferometer basics
The U, V plane => Dirty beams,
Fourier I nversion => Dirty maps
De-convolve Dirty Beam => CLEAN maps
The VLA, VLBA, and ALMA


F
reflect
= f
trans
+ / - Df Df = 2 f (V/c)

f = 10 GHz
V = 100 km/h = 27.8 m /s
c = 3 x 10
10
cm/s = 3 x 10
5
km/s Df = 1850 Hz
Radar:
Df = 1850 Hz
f
trans
F
reflect
= f
trans
+ / - Df
Mixing: Adding waves together
Local oscillator
Downconverted signal
Frequency
Single sideband mixer:
f = 10 GHz
F + Df =
10 GHz + 1850 Hz
1850 Hz
Df = f
IF
Band-pass of amplifier:
Intermediate frequency = IF
Planetary Radar imaging: Doppler shift + time delay = 2D map
Radar Pulse
Early echo
Late echo
Blueshift Redshift
Venus
UV
Radar
Radar
Venus
Radar
A Simple Heterodyne Receiver
low noise
amplifier
filter
receiver horn
LO
tunable
filter
signal @ 1420 MHz
1570 MHz
1420 MHz
tunable
LO
~150 MHz
Analog-to-Digital
Converter
Computer
+ +
outputs a
power spectrum
150 MHz
Amplification
Why is having a low noise first amp so
important?
the noise in the first amp gets amplified by all
subsequent amps
you want to amplify the signal before subsequent
electronics add noise
Amplification is in units of deciBells (dB)
logarithmic scale
3 dB = x2
5 dB = x3
10 dB = x10
20 dB = x100
30 dB = x1000
) ( log 10 dB
2
1
10
V
V
=
Observing in the Radio I
We get frequency and phase information,
but not position on the sky
2D detector
A CCD is also a 2D detector (we get x & y
position)
Observing in the Radio II:
Typical Beamsize (Resolution)
i.e. The BURAO 21 cm horn (D ~ 1 m)

12
100
21
= =
cm
cm
D
l
q
Observing in the Radio II
i.e. The NRAO GBT (D ~ 100 m)
' 2 . 7
10000
21
= =
cm
cm
D
l
q
' ' 2 . 6 ' 10 . 0
10000
3 . 0
= = =
cm
cm
D
l
q
at 21cm = 1.420 GHz
at 0.3 cm = 100 GHz
Observing in the Radio II
i.e. The Arecibo Telescope (D ~ 300 m)
' 4 . 2
30000
21
= =
cm
cm
D
l
q
' ' 1 . 2
30000
3 . 0
= =
cm
cm
D
l
q
at 21cm = 1.420 GHz
at 0.3 cm = 100 GHz
300 m dish at Arecibo
Transmission (and brightness of the Atmosphere) depends on H
2
O!
Observing in the Radio III:
Brightness Temperature
Flux: erg s
-1
sr
-1
cm
-2
Hz
-1
(10
23
Jy)
B
u
(T): erg s
-1
sr
-1
cm
-2
Hz
-1
(10
23
Jy)
We can use temperature as a proxy for flux (Jy)

Conveniently, most radio signals have hu/kT << 1,
so we can use the Raleigh-Jeans approximation

B
u
(T) = 2kT/l
2

Thus, flux is linear with temperature
Antenna Temperature
T
B
= F
u
l
2
/2k
Brightness temperature (T
B
) gives the
surface temperature of the source (if its a
thermal spectrum)
Antenna Temperature (T
A
):
if the antenna beam is larger than the source, it
will see the source and some sky background, in
which case T
A
is less than T
B
T
A
~ T
B
W
s
/W
b

System Temperature
Noise in the system is characterized by
the system temperature (T
sys
)
i.e. you want your system temperature
(especially in the first amp) to be low
Radiometer Equation
T
rms
= a T
sys
/ ( Dn t)

T
rms
= r.m.s. noise in observation
a ~ (2)
1/2
since you have to switch
off-source = position switch
off-frequency = frequency switch
T
sys
= System temperature
Dn = bandwidth, frequency range observed
t = integration time (how long is the exposure?)

Spectral Resolution
The spectral resolution in a radio
telescope can be limited by several issues:
integration time (signal-to-noise)
filter bank resolution (if youre using a filter
bank to generate a power spectrum in
hardware)
Single Dish line & continuum basics

q = l / D ~ arc minutes
10 m @ 1 cm => 250

Brightness temperature: B
n
(T) => I T

Radiometer equation:

T
RMS
= aT
sys
/ (Dn t)
1/2

Ex: n = 100 GHz, Dn = 1 MHz (= 3 km/s), t = 1 sec, T
sys
= 1000 K

T
RMS
= 1 a (Kelvin)

Orion B
Orion A
Orion Nebula
Orion Molecular
Clouds

13
CO
2.6 mm
350 mm
13
CO
J=6-5 661 GHz





(Wilson et al. in prep)
12
CO J=9-8
(discovery)
12
CO J=9-8
OMC1
OMC1-S
(Kawamura et al. 2002)
THz spectra!
Milky Way all-sky: Visual wavelengths
Milky Way all-sky: Infrared wavelengths (COBE)
408 MHz radio sky
21 cm HI all-sky map
Dame et al. CO map of Milky Way
Dame et al. CO map of Milky Way
R Cor Aust.
r-Ophiucus
Galactic Center
Multi-transition
Analysis of
Outflow mass
spectra
Multi-transition analysis of outflow mass spectra
L1551 J=2-1 CO
[SII] with CO
L1551
Radio Interferometry
+
Q
East
Q
Two Dish Interferometry
The fringe pattern as a function of time
gives the East-West (RA) position of the
object
Also think of the interferometer as painting
a fringe pattern on the sky
the source moves through this pattern,
changing the amplitude as it goes
Extended Sources
+ - + - - + +
Spacing of the fringes is a function of
the projected baseline
The area under the fringes determines
the amplitude of the signal (positive
fringes add, negative fringes subtract)
The projected baseline changes as the
source rises or sets
Extended Sources
The narrow fringes
(not visible here),
represent the
positional delay.

The broad
envelope is the
self-interference of
the extended
source.
A four hour observation of the Sun at 12 GHz
using a two dish E-W interferometer.
Extended Sources
In order to determine the extended objects
shape, we must disentangle the fringes due
to the projected baseline (which wed get
from a point source) from the interference of
the different parts of the source
to do this, we use delay lines
we introduce a delay between the two antennas
to compensate for the the positional delay
this leaves only the fringes from the structure of
the source
Aperture Synthesis
A two dish interferometer only gives
information on the E-W (RA) structure of a
source
To get 2D information, we want to use
several dishes spread out over two
dimensions on the ground
Radio Telescope Arrays
The VLA:
An array of 27 antennas
with 25 meter apertures

maximum baseline: 36 km

75 Mhz to 43 GHz
Very Large Array radio telescope (near Socorro NM)
The VLA
An amplifier
The U-V Plane
Think of an array as a partially filled aperture
the point source function (PSF) will be have
complicated structure (not an airy disk)
the U-V plane shows what part of the aperture is
filled by a telescope
this changes with time as the object rises and
sets
a long exposure will have a better PSF because
there is better U-V plane coverage (closer to a
filled aperture)
The U-V plane
a snapshot of the U-V plane
(VLBA)
U-V coverage in a
horizon to horizon exposure
Point Spread Function
The dirty beam : the diffraction pattern of the array
Fourier plane sampling
UV plane covered over 6 hrs Amplitude of fringes on a source
Examples of weighting


Dirty Beams:
A snapshot (few min) Full 10 hrs VLA+VLBA+GBT
Image Deconvolution
Interferometers have nasty PSFs
To get a good image we deconvolve the
image with the PSF
we know the PSF from the UV plane coverage
computer programs take a PSF pattern in the
image and replace it with a point
the image becomes a collection of point
sources
UV Plane Coverage and PSF
images from a presentation by Tim Cornwell (given at NRAO SISS 2002)
UV Plane Coverage and PSF
images from a presentation by Tim Cornwell (given at NRAO SISS 2002)
Image Deconvolution
images from a presentation by Tim Cornwell (given at NRAO SISS 2002)
The Orion Nebula (at 1.4 GHz)
SNR Cassiopeia A
Continuum in 3 colors:
1.4 GHz (L band)
5.0 GHz (C band)
8.4 GHz (X band)
Jupiter and
its magnetosphere
W50 SNR: SS 433 (accreting neutron star + 0.27c jets)
21 cm HI map
of M33
Centaurus A (the nearest radio galaxy)
PH 227

Radio galaxy
and jets
Radio galaxy
3C286
VLBA
Radio Telescope Arrays
ALMA:
An array of 64 antennas
with 12 meter apertures

maximum baseline: 10 km

35 GHz to 850 GHz