NEW 145 MHz SOURCE MEASUREMENTS BY PAPER IN THE SOUTHERN SKY

Journal Article · Mon Jun 20 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/734/2/L34· OSTI ID:21562594

Jacobs, Daniel C; Aguirre, James E; Moore, David F ^[1]; Parsons, Aaron R; Pober, Jonathan C ^[2]; Bradley, Richard F; Parashare, Chaitali R ^[3]; Carilli, Chris L ^[4]; Gugliucci, Nicole E ^[5]; Manley, Jason R

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (United States)
2. Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United Kingdom)
3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
4. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM (United States)
5. Astronomy Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)

We present observations from the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) in South Africa, observed in 2010 May and September. Using two nights of drift scanning with PAPER's 60{sup 0} FWHM beam we have made a map covering the entire sky below +10{sup 0} declination with an effective center frequency of 145 MHz, a 70 MHz bandwidth, and a resolution of 26'. A 4800 deg{sup 2} region of this large map with the lowest Galactic emission reaches an rms of 0.7 Jy. We establish an absolute flux scale using sources from the 160 MHz Culgoora catalog. Using the 408 MHz Molonglo Reference Catalog (MRC) as a finding survey, we identify counterparts to 480 sources in our maps and compare our fluxes to the MRC and to 332 sources in the Culgoora catalog. For both catalogs, the ratio of PAPER to catalog flux averages to 1, with a standard deviation of 50%. This measured variation is consistent with comparisons between independent catalogs observed at different bands. The PAPER data represent new 145 MHz flux measurements for a large number of sources in the band expected to encompass cosmic reionization and represents a significant step toward establishing a model for removing foregrounds to the reionization signal.

• OSTI ID: 21562594
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 734; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CATALOGS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
DOCUMENT TYPES
EMISSION
MAPS
SKY
STARS