UvA MSc Radio Astronomy 2015

Important Deadlines/Dates

(All requested assignment materials should be sent to Jason at “j.w.t.hessels@uva.nl”)

Fri April 17: Outline of mock observing proposal.

Wed April 29: Results of simulate your own interferometer practicum.

Fri May 1: First draft of mock observing proposal.

Wed May 6: Field trip to ASTRON, Westerbork and LOFAR (All Day).

Wed May 15: Results of VLA interferometric imaging data analysis practicum.

Tue May 19: Oral presentations (15min talk + 5min questions) of the mock observing proposals (09:00 - 13:00; room TBD).

Wed May 20: Results of LOFAR pulsar searching/timing data analysis practicum.

Fri May 22: Final version of written mock observing proposal.

Wed May 27: Final exam.

Summary of Practicum Sessions

(See also detailed descriptions below)

Mon March 30: Setup computing environment.

Wed April 1: Short lecture on how to write an observing proposal (see slides below).

Wed April 8: Discuss observing proposal ideas in a group (outside!).

Mon April 13: Discuss observing proposal ideas one-on-one.

Wed April 15: Work on observing proposal yourself.

Mon April 20: Simulate your own interferometer - session I.

Wed April 22: Simulate your own interferometer - session II.

Wed April 29: Calibrate and image VLA data - session I.

Wed May 6: Field trip to ASTRON, Westerbork and LOFAR.

Mon May 11: Calibrate and image VLA data - session II.

Wed May 13: Search and time pulsar in LOFAR data - session I.

Mon May 18: Search and time pulsar in LOFAR data - session II.

Tue May 19 (shifted from Wed May 20): Mock observing proposal presentations.

Lecture Synopsis (date, title, lecturers/TAs)

Course Outline

March 30, 2015 - The History of Radio Astronomy: Past to Present - Jason

Lecture 1 (lecture slides including extra notes)

Introduction to the course: course structure, goals, lectures, practica, etc.

Maxwell, Hertz, Marconi

Karl Jansky

Grote Reber

Technological developments during WWII

The post-war dawn of radio astronomy

Great discoveries in the first half century of radio astronomy

Radio astronomy in the context of multi-wavelength astronomy

The radio telescope as IT instrument

April 1, 2015 - The Science of Radio Astronomy: Extragalactic - Michael

Lecture 2 (lecture slides including extra notes)

Radio Astronomy for Extragalactic Science

Nearby Galaxies, Mapping HI, Dynamics, Magnetic Fields

Nearby Galaxies, Astrometry, SNR, GRBs, Mapping HI, Dynamics,

Star Formation, FIR-Radio Correlation, Lensing

Radio Galaxies, AGN, Jets, Quasars, Gas Flows, and Radio Source Evolution

Galaxy Groups and Clusters, Feedback, Black Hole Growth, Relics, Halos, and Shocks

Cosmic Microwave Background, S-Z Effect, EoR, Cosmology and Large-scale Structure

April 8, 2015 - The Science of Radio Astronomy: Galactic and Solar System - Joeri

Lecture 3 (lecture slides including extra notes)

The Milky Way

Clouds of gas, supernovae, pulsars

The Sun

The Giant planets

Radar imaging of the planets, moon, and near-Earth asteroids

April 13, 2015 - Emission Mechanisms in Radio Astronomy - Jason

Lecture 4 (lecture slides including extra notes)

Thermal vs.non-thermal emission

Continuum vs. line emission

Blackbody radiation from the CMB and dust

Free-free emission (thermal bremstrahlung)

Radio recombination lines

21-cm line

Molecular vibration and rotation lines

MASERs

Cyclotron radiation

Synchrotron radiation

Inverse Compton radiation

Synchrotron self-Compton radiation

Propagation effects

April 15, 2015 - The Radio Telescope - Joeri

Lecture 5 (lecture slides, all notes included on slide text)

Antenna response: resolution and beam shapes

Reflector types, collecting area

The signal chain: antenna, receivers, amplifiers, and mixers

Sensitivity: the radiometer equation

April 20, 2015 - The Techniques of Radio Interferometry I: The Basics - Jason

Lecture 6 (lecture slides including extra notes)

Motivation for radio interferometry

Two-element interferometer

Basic interferometer equations

Beam shape

Understanding the UV-plane

Preparing for the “Simulate your own interferometer” practicum

April 22, 2015 - The Techniques of Radio Interferometry II: Calibration - Michael

Lecture 7 (lecture slides including extra notes)

Definition of Calibration

Visibilities, uv Coverage, Gains, Phases

Real Data, Data Examination, Data Editing

Formalism, Ideal vs. Real Measurements

Calibration Strategies and Effectiveness

April 29, 2015 - The Techniques of Radio Interferometry III: Imaging - Michael

Lecture 8 (lecture slides including extra notes)

Imaging and Deconvolution

Image Quality, Noise, Dynamic Range

Wide-band imaging, Multi-frequency Synthesis

Wide-field imaging, Facet Imaging, W-Projection

Mosaicing

May 6, 2015 - Field Trip to LOFAR and Westerbork - All

May 11, 2015 - The Techniques of Time-Domain Radio Astronomy I: Single-dish techniques - Joeri

Main differences between imaging and single-dish time domain astronomy

High-time resolution recording

Pulsar properties

Pulsar timing

May 13, 2015 - The Techniques of Time-Domain Radio Astronomy II: High time resolution with interferometers - Jason

Comparison with single-dish observations

Incoherent vs. coherent summation

Fly's Eye observations

Fast imaging

Advanced techniques

May 18, 2015 - The Future of Radio Astronomy - Michael

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

SKA Pathfinders

SKA Computational Challenges

Data Intensive Astronomy

Beyond the SKA

May 19, 2015 - Observing proposal presentations - All

May 27, 2015 - Final Exam - Jason + Daniele + Amruta

Practica (projects, dates, goals, materials)

Set up computing environment

Goal : Get you connected to the prepared computing environment.

Expected time : 1-2hrs

Sessions :

March 30 - Simply ensure that everyone is able to login properly and create a simple python script/plot.

Materials : see printed instructions.

Mock observing proposal

Goal : Synthesize your scientific, theoretical and technical knowledge of radio astronomy by writing a mock observing proposal for a real radio telescope. Who knows: you might even want to submit it for real! The proposal is 3-4 page scientific justification (including figures), 1 page technical justification, and 1 page references maximum. Final deliverable is a PDF. You can write it as Latex, Word, or otherwise. See template below, under “Materials”.

Expected time : ~48hrs

Contribution to total grade : 35% (20% for written proposal; 15% for oral presentation)

Sessions :

April 1 - Get some tips on how to write your proposal (see lecture notes below, under “Materials”).

April 8 - Start discussing proposal ideas with the lecturers.

April 13 - Disc proposal ideas one on one with Jason; Prepare a first outline to submit by Fri April 17

April 15 - Prepare a first outline to submit by Fri April 17

May 19 - Final presentations

Materials :

Advice on how to write your observing proposal

Proposal template .pdf

Proposal template .tex.gz (need to "gunzip")

Example observing proposal

Proposal plans and assigned “mentor”

Timo: Probing gas in interacting galaxies - Michael

Peter: Crab pulsar giant pulses - Joeri

Daan: Fast radio bursts to probe the intergalactic medium - Joeri

Sebastiaan: Intermediate Mass Black Holes as the mechanism behind Hyperluminous X-ray Sources - Jason

Ziggy: Polarization in nearby galaxies and possible relation to star formation - Michael

Okan: Dust formation in Supernova Remnants - Jason

Sarah: 21-cm cosmology - Michael

Bas: Kilonovae triggered based on LIGO gravitational wave events - Joeri

David: X-ray/radio luminosity relation for neutron stars - Jason

Coen: Stellar mass black holes switching off/onto the fundamental plane - Jason

Simulate your own interferometer

Goal : Deepen your understanding of how a radio interferometer works by simulating your own radio telescope from scratch using Python.

Expected time : ~16hrs

Contribution to total grade : 10%

Sessions :

April 20 - Start writing your script to simulate the synthesized beams of various interferometer configurations.

April 22 - Get close to finishing your script and plots. Assignment is due Wed April 29th.

Materials : Assignment and tips

Make a VLA interferometric image

Goal : Make you first radio interferometric image and understand the underlying calibration process and methods.

Expected time : ~24hrs

Contribution to total grade : 15%

Sessions :

April 29 Data preparation and Flagging

May 11 Calibration and Imaging

Materials :

Field trip to Westerbork and LOFAR

Goals :

Expected time : ~9hrs

Contribution to total grade : 0% (but expect to learn a few things that may appear on the Final Exam)

Sessions :

May 6

Materials :

"Discover" and characterize a radio pulsar

Goals : Learn how to “discover” a radio pulsar in radio telescope and then characterize its properties.

Expected time : ~16hrs

Contribution to total grade : 10%

Sessions :

May 13

May 18

Materials :

Further References for Radio Astronomy

We stress that the course lecture and practica notes should serve as a self contained guide for the course (i.e. these should be sufficient background to complete the practica and write the exam, though for the mock observing proposal you will definitely need to do some independent reading of sources relevant to your chosen topic). Nonetheless, here are some of links to radio astronomy learning materials.

Links to other classes

NRAO Essential Radio Astronomy (Condon & Ransom): http://www.cv.nrao.edu/course/astr534/ERA.shtml

NJIT Radio Astronomy Course (Gary): http://web.njit.edu/~gary/728/

Leiden Radio Astronomy Course (Garrett): http://www.astron.nl/~mag/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=radio_astronomy_course_description

Leiden Radio Astronomy Course (Schilizzi): http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~intema/ra2006.htm

Glasgow Radio Astronomy Course (Woan): http://radio.astro.gla.ac.uk/ralectures/

UvA Interferometry (Jaffe): http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~jaffe/interferometry/AMS2/

UvA Radio Astronomy (Strom): http://www.astron.nl/~leeuwen/course/RadioAstronomy_2013/Strom/

NRAO Synthesis Imaging Summer School: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/events/synthesis/2012/lectures.shtml

U. Calgary radio telescope project: http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/radiotel/

Reference books

An introdution to Radio Astronomy

Radio Astronomy

High Energy Astrophysics

Tools of Radio Astronomy

Antennas

Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy