Direction-dependent Corrections in Polarimetric Radio Imaging. II. A-solver Methodology: A Low-order Solver for the A-term of the A-projection Algorithm

Abstract

Abstract The effects of the antenna far-field power pattern limits the imaging performance of modern wide-bandwidth, high-sensitivity interferometric radio telescopes. Given a model for the aperture illumination pattern (AIP) of the antenna, referred to as the A-term, the wide-band (WB) A-Projection algorithm corrects for the effects of its time, frequency, and polarization structure. The level to which this correction is possible depends on how accurately the A-term represents the true AIP. In this paper, we describe the A-Solver methodology that combines physical modeling with optimization to holographic measurements to build an accurate model for the AIP. Using a parametrized ray-tracing code as the predictor, we solve for the frequency dependence of the antenna optics and show that the resulting low-order model for the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array antenna captures the dominant frequency-dependent terms. The A-Solver methodology described here is generic and can be adapted for other types of antennas as well. The parameterization is based on the physical characteristics of the antenna structure and optics and is therefore arguably a compact representation (minimized degrees of freedom) of the frequency-dependent structure of the antenna A-term. In this paper, we also show that the parameters derived from A-Solver methodology are expected to improve sensitivity and imaging performance out to the first side-lobe of the antenna.