Low Frequency Instrument Research Articles

Investigation into CME Shock Speed Resulting from Type II Solar Radio Bursts

An investigation into Type II solar radio bursts was carried out to understand the frequency gap between fundamental and harmonic emissions of the radio burst. This investigation focused on Type II solar radio bursts with flares and coronal mass ejections by relating the separation between fundamental and harmonic emissions. We used the Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Spectrometers (CALLISTO) and a newly designed low-frequency antenna array. This article describes the proposed new instrument in terms of its antenna design, the bandpass testing of the antenna, the new system significance in studying Type II solar radio bursts, and its comparison with other leading radio solar monitoring instruments. Upon setting up the new technology, the radio-frequency interference of the observation site at the University of Malaya was shown to emphasize the suitability of the selected site. This article also shows the preliminary results of the proposed new instrument by reporting the detection of a Type III solar radio burst that was confirmed by CALLISTO. Moreover, it also includes the optimal observation design and strategies for future detections.

Increase in Interference Levels in the 45 – 870 MHz Band at the Spanish e-CALLISTO Sites over the Years 2012 and 2019

Two sets of radio-frequency interference (RFI) measurements in the 45 – 870 MHz band are compared. The first set was taken in 2012 at various sites in the province of Guadalajara (Spain) as part of a worldwide site-testing campaign for the deployment of an international network of solar radio-spectrometers, the Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (e-CALLISTO) array. Peralejos de las Truchas was found to be an ideal location, even for high-sensitivity non-solar observations, with the lowest interference levels ever measured in the framework of e-CALLISTO. The same set of measurements have been repeated seven years later using the same experimental setup at the same locations. The results presented in this article show that the RFI levels after seven years have notably increased, at some places by a factor of two, thereby placing at risk broadband spectroscopic radio-astronomy studies from the ground.

Beam-deconvolved Planck LFI maps

The Planck Collaboration made its final data release in 2018. In this paper we describe beam-deconvolution map products made from Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) data using the artDeco deconvolution code to symmetrize the effective beam. The deconvolution results are auxiliary data products, available through the Planck Legacy Archive. Analysis of these deconvolved survey difference maps reveals signs of residual signal in the 30 GHz and 44 GHz frequency channels. We produce low-resolution maps and corresponding noise covariance matrices (NCVMs). The NCVMs agree reasonably well with the half-ring noise estimates except for 44 GHz, where we observe an asymmetry between EE and BB noise spectra, possibly a sign of further unresolved systematic error. In contrast to the official Planck LFI maps, the beam-deconvolution maps have not been corrected for bandpass mismatch, and the residual noise is not well approximated by white noise.

Precision requirements for interferometric gridding in the analysis of a 21 cm power spectrum

Context. Experiments that try to observe the 21 cm redshifted signals from the epoch of reionisation (EoR) using interferometric low-frequency instruments have stringent requirements on the processing accuracy. Aims. We analyse the accuracy of radio interferometric gridding of visibilities with the aim to quantify the power spectrum bias caused by gridding. We do this ultimately to determine the suitability of different imaging algorithms and gridding settings for an analysis of a 21 cm power spectrum. Methods. We simulated realistic Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) data and constructed power spectra with convolutional gridding and w stacking, w projection, image-domain gridding, and without w correction. These were compared against data that were directly Fourier transformed. The influence of oversampling, kernel size, w-quantization, kernel windowing function, and image padding were quantified. The gridding excess power was measured with a foreground subtraction strategy, for which foregrounds were subtracted using Gaussian progress regression, as well as with a foreground avoidance strategy. Results. Constructing a power spectrum with a significantly lower bias than the expected EoR signals is possible with the methods we tested, but requires a kernel oversampling factor of at least 4000, and when w-correction is used, at least 500 w-quantization levels. These values are higher than typically used values for imaging, but they are computationally feasible. The kernel size and padding factor parameters are less crucial. Of the tested methods, image-domain gridding shows the highest accuracy with the lowest imaging time. Conclusions. LOFAR 21 cm power spectrum results are not affected by gridding. Image-domain gridding is overall the most suitable algorithm for 21 cm EoR power spectrum experiments, including for future analyses of data from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) EoR. Nevertheless, convolutional gridding with tuned parameters results in sufficient accuracy for interferometric 21 cm EoR experiments. This also holds for w stacking for wide-field imaging. The w-projection algorithm is less suitable because of the requirements for kernel oversampling, and a faceting approach is unsuitable because it causes spatial discontinuities.

Automated Detection of Solar Radio Bursts Using a Statistical Method

Radio bursts from the solar corona can provide clues to forecast space weather hazards. After recent technology advancements, regular monitoring of radio bursts has increased and large observational data sets are produced. Hence, manual identification and classification of them is a challenging task. In this paper, we describe an algorithm to automatically identify radio bursts from dynamic solar radio spectrograms using a novel statistical method. We used e-CALLISTO radio spectrometer data observed at Gauribidanur observatory near Bangalore in India during 2013 - 2014. We have studied the classifier performance using the receiver operating characteristics. Further, we studied type III bursts observed in the year 2014 and found that $75\%$ of the observed bursts were below 200 MHz. Our analysis shows that the positions of the flare sites which are associated with the type III bursts with upper-frequency cut-off $\gtrsim 200$ MHz originate close to the solar disk center

Image Processing of Case Study of Solar Radio Burst Type III and Type IV Burst Using Sunpy

Solar radio burst at low-frequency lies in the fact that they originate in the same layers of the solar atmosphere in which geo-effective disturbance probably originate Type III bursts have consistently the fastest drift rates of bursts at metric wavelengths and was created by an electron beam through plasma emission. Meanwhile, type IV burst is broadband quasi-continuum features associated with the decay phase of solar flares. A geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere that occurs when there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth. The aim of this study is to find out whether type III bursts preserved energy to solar bursts type IV thus led to the formation of geomagnetic storm. The solar radio burst type III and IV were observed by CALLISTO Spectrometer. CALLISTO is an acronym from Compound Astronomical Low cost Low frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory. The Sunpy by Python was used to analyze the spectrogram image by eliminate the unwanted signal or noise in the image which is in the presence of noise, the spectrum gives inaccurate reading of frequency and time. Although the study did not show much correlation between bursts type IV and type III in producing these storms, there are several possible explanations from this result. It may be the case that solar events such as solar flare, CMEs and active region ejected from the solar disc is not heading towards Earth and the energy has eventually disperses into the interplanetary medium.

Burst-Finder: burst recognition for E-CALLISTO spectra

Investigations related to the impact caused by solar radio burst emissions on space weather forecasting and human activities have been ongoing for a long time. Solar activities based on radio spectra are recorded by using a radio spectrometer from ground Earth. Currently, manual observations are conducted for burst detection using the Compound Astronomical Low-Cost Low-Frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO) spectrometer that is able to generate more than one thousand spectra a day at each station. This Burst-Finder was developed to automatically detect the presence of solar radio bursts from the spectra using MATLAB. This study processed 1491 CALLISTO spectra images from 31 stations on 11 February 2014, in which Type II and Type III burst occurrences were detected. The success rate for burst detection was about 89%. This automated system offers CALLISTO uses an effortless and hassle-free tool for burst detection in order to monitor solar bursts during a complete cycle of 11 years.

The escape fraction of ionizing photons during the Epoch of Reionization: observability with the Square Kilometre Array

Abstract One of the most important parameters in characterizing the Epoch of Reionization, the escape fraction of ionizing photons, fesc, remains unconstrained both observationally and theoretically. With recent work highlighting the impact of galaxy-scale feedback on the instantaneous value of fesc, it is important to develop a model in which reionization is self-consistently coupled to galaxy evolution. In this work, we present such a model and explore how physically motivated functional forms of fesc affect the evolution of ionized hydrogen within the intergalactic medium. Using the 21 cm power spectrum evolution, we investigate the likelihood of observationally distinguishing between a constant fesc and other models that depend upon different forms of galaxy feedback. We find that changing the underlying connection between fesc and galaxy feedback drastically alters the large-scale 21 cm power. The upcoming Square Kilometre Array Low Frequency instrument possesses the sensitivity to differentiate between our models at a fixed optical depth, requiring only 200 h of integration time focused on redshifts z = 7.5–8.5. Generalizing these results to account for a varying optical depth will require multiple 800 h observations spanning redshifts z = 7–10. This presents an exciting opportunity to observationally constrain one of the most elusive parameters during the Epoch of Reionization.

A Critical Evaluation of Recent Claims Concerning Solar Rotation

Abstract Fossat et al. recently reported detecting rotational splitting of g-modes indirectly via the interaction with p-modes observed directly by the Global Oscillations at Low Frequency (GOLF) instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). They concluded that the core of the Sun is rotating 3.8 ± 0.1 times faster than the surrounding radiative envelope. This is startling, partly because such rapid rotation almost contradicts direct inferences from the p-mode rotational splitting inferred from the same data. Moreover, the inferred amplitudes of the g-modes appear to exceed the upper bound reported by Appourchaux et al. It is also suspect because the theory of the procedure implies that the principal modes claimed to have been measured should be undetectable. We point out that there are other interpretations: one leads to a core rotation about twice as fast as the surrounding envelope; another, to a core rotating more slowly than the envelope. Here we also report on an independent assessment of the Fossat et al. analysis by applying their procedure to different representations of the GOLF data, expanding on Schunker et al. We also analyze seismic data obtained from LOI and MDI (both also on SOHO), from HMI (on SDO), and from the ground-based BiSON and GONG, and we find the evidence reported by Fossat et al. not to be robust. We also illustrate that merely fitting model spectra to observations, which Fossat et al. do to support their g-mode detections, and as Fossat & Schmider do for extracting additional g-mode splittings, is not necessarily reliable. We are therefore led to doubt the claim.

In-flight measurement of Planck telescope emissivity

The Planck satellite in orbit mission ended in October 2013. Between the end of Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) routine mission operations and the satellite decommissioning, a dedicated test was also performed to measure the Planck telescope emissivity. The scope of the test was twofold: (i) to provide, for the first time in flight, a direct measure of the telescope emissivity; and (ii) to evaluate the possible degradation of the emissivity by comparing data taken in flight at the end of mission with those taken during the ground telescope characterization. The emissivity was determined by heating the Planck telescope and disentangling the system temperature excess measured by the LFI radiometers. Results show End of Life (EOL) performance in good agreement with the results from the ground optical tests and from in-flight indirect estimations measured during the Commissioning and Performance Verification (CPV) phase. Methods and results are presented and discussed.

The Variance Formation of M9.3 Solar Flare Associated with Solar Radio Burst Type V Occurred at Eight (8) Different Sites of the CALLISTO System on 4th August 2011

We report a detailed examination of the variance formation of M9.3 solar flare associated with solar radio burst Type V that occurred on 2011 August 4. Solar radio burst type V was identified occurred with present of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) towards earth which moving estimated about 1,950 km/s which can gives major impact to our Earths in terms of satellites. The event was observed by using Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-Frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO). CALLISTO is a radio spectrometer that has been used 24 hour per day which designed for solar observation. The solar radio burst was occurred at 21.1 MHz at 3 minutes (0358 UTC till 0401 UTC). Noted that all the sites are less suffering from local RFI with solar wind speed and density reached 411.6 km/sec and 3.8 proton/cm3. Solar radio burst Type V is known as smooth with short-lived continuum which sometime followed by a type III burst. We show radio flux density in eight (8) different sites. Finally, we discuss the X-ray flux density to determine classes of the solar flares.

A novel approach to reduce environmental noise in microgravity measurements using a Scintrex CG5

The accuracy and repeatability of microgravity measurements for surveying purposes are affected by two main sources of noise; instrument noise from the sensor and electronics, and environmental sources of noise from anthropogenic activity, wind, microseismic activity and other sources of vibrational noise. There is little information in the literature on the quantitative values of these different noise sources and their significance for microgravity measurements. Experiments were conducted to quantify these sources of noise with multiple instruments, and to develop methodologies to reduce these unwanted signals thereby improving the accuracy or speed of microgravity measurements. External environmental sources of noise were found to be concentrated at higher frequencies (> 0.1 Hz), well within the instrument's bandwidth. In contrast, the internal instrumental noise was dominant at frequencies much lower than the reciprocal of the maximum integration time, and was identified as the limiting factor for current instruments. The optimum time for integration was found to be between 120 and 150 s for the instruments tested.In order to reduce the effects of external environmental noise on microgravity measurements, a filtering and despiking technique was created using data from noisy environments next to a main road and outside on a windy day. The technique showed a significant improvement in the repeatability of measurements, with between 40% and 50% lower standard deviations being obtained over numerous different data sets.The filtering technique was then tested in field conditions by using an anomaly of known size, and a comparison made between different filtering methods. Results showed improvements with the proposed method performing better than a conventional, or boxcar, averaging process. The proposed despiking process was generally found to be ineffective, with greater gains obtained when complete measurement records were discarded. Field survey results were worse than static measurement results, possibly due to the actions of moving the Scintrex during the survey which caused instability and elastic relaxation in the sensor, or the liquid tilt sensors, which generated additional low frequency instrument noise. However, the technique will result in significant improvements to accuracy and a reduction of measurement time, both for static measurements, for example at reference sites and observatories, and for field measurements using the next generation of instruments based on new technology, such as atom interferometry, resulting in time and cost savings.

Quantifying Weak Nonthermal Solar Radio Emission at Low Radio Frequencies

Abstract The recent availability of fine-grained high-sensitivity data from the new generation of low radio frequency instruments such as the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has opened up opportunities for using novel techniques for characterizing the nature of solar emission at these frequencies. Here we use this opportunity to look for evidence for the presence of weak nonthermal emissions in the 100–240 MHz band, at levels weaker than have been probed so far. The presence of such features is believed to be a necessary consequence of nanoflare-based coronal and chromospheric heating theories. We separate the calibrated MWA solar dynamic spectra into a slowly varying and an impulsive, and hence nonthermal, component. We demonstrate that Gaussian mixture modeling can be used to robustly model the latter, and we estimate the flux density distribution as well as the prevalence of impulsive nonthermal emission in the frequency-time plane. Evidence for the presence of nonthermal emission at levels down to ∼0.2 SFU (1 SFU = 104 Jy) is reported, making them the weakest reported emissions of this nature. Our work shows the fractional occupancy of the nonthermal impulsive emission to lie in the 17%–45% range during a period of medium solar activity. We also find that the flux density radiated in the impulsive nonthermal emission is very similar in strength to that of the slowly varying component, which is dominated by thermal bremsstrahlung. Such significant prevalence and strength of the weak impulsive nonthermal emission has not been appreciated before.

SKA aperture array verification system: electromagnetic modeling and beam pattern measurements using a micro UAV

In this paper we present the electromagnetic modeling and beam pattern measurements of a 16-elements ultra wideband sparse random test array for the low frequency instrument of the Square Kilometer Array telescope. We discuss the importance of a small array test platform for the development of technologies and techniques towards the final telescope, highlighting the most relevant aspects of its design. We also describe the electromagnetic simulations and modeling work as well as the embedded-element and array pattern measurements using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle system. The latter are helpful both for the validation of the models and the design as well as for the future instrumental calibration of the telescope thanks to the stable, accurate and strong radio frequency signal transmitted by the UAV. At this stage of the design, these measurements have shown a general agreement between experimental results and numerical data and have revealed the localized effect of un-calibrated cable lengths in the inner side-lobes of the array pattern.

Main beam modeling for large irregular arrays

Large radio telescopes in the 21st century such as the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) or the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) make use of phased aperture arrays of antennas to achieve superb survey speeds. The Square Kilometer Array low frequency instrument (SKA1-LOW) will consist of a collection of non-regular phased array systems. The prediction of the main beam of these arrays using a few coefficients is crucial for the calibration of the telescope. An effective approach to model the main beam and first few sidelobes for large non-regular arrays is presented. The approach exploits Zernike polynomials to represent the array pattern. Starting from the current defined on an equivalence plane located just above the array, the pattern is expressed as a sum of Fourier transforms of Zernike functions of different orders. The coefficients for Zernike polynomials are derived by two different means: least-squares and analytical approaches. The analysis shows that both approaches provide a similar performance for representing the main beam and first few sidelobes. Moreover, numerical results for different array configurations are provided, which demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, also for arrays with shapes far from circular.

Spectral performance of SKA Log-periodic Antennas I: mitigating spectral artefacts in SKA1-LOW 21 cm cosmology experiments

This paper is the first in a series of papers describing the impact of antenna instrumental artefacts on the 21-cm cosmology experiments to be carried out by the low frequency instrument (SKA1-LOW) of the Square Kilometre Array telescope (SKA), i.e., the Cosmic Dawn (CD) and the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). The smoothness of the passband response of the current log-periodic antenna being developed for the SKA1-LOW is analyzed using numerical electromagnetic simulations. The amplitude variations over the frequency range are characterized using low-order polynomials defined locally, in order to study the impact of the passband smoothness in the instrument calibration and CD/EoR Science. A solution is offered to correct a fast ripple found at 60~MHz during a test campaign at the SKA site at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, Western Australia in September 2015 with a minor impact on the telescope's performance and design. A comparison with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array antenna is also shown demonstrating the potential use of the SKA1-LOW antenna for the Delay Spectrum technique to detect the EoR.

CMB signatures of metal-free star formation and Planck 2015 polarization data

Standard analyses of the reionization history of the Universe from Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements consider only the overall optical depth to electron scattering (τ), and further assume a step-like reionization history. However, the polarization data contain information beyond the overall optical depth, and the assumption of a step-like function may miss high redshift contributions to the optical depth and leads to biased τ constraints. Accounting for its full reionization information content, we reconsider the interpretation of Planck 2015 Low-Frequency Instrument (LFI) polarization data using simple, yet physically motivated reionization models. We show that these measurements still, in fact, allow a non-negligible contribution from metal-free (Pop-III) stars forming in mini-haloes of mass M ∼ 105–106 M⊙ at z ≳ 15, provided this mode of star formation is fairly inefficient. We find that an early, self-regulated phase of Pop-III star formation with a gradual, plateau feature in the ionization history provides a good match to the Planck LFI measurements. In this case, as much as 20 per cent of the volume of the Universe is ionized by z ∼ 20. Although preferred when the full information content of the data is incorporated, this model would spuriously be disfavoured in the standard analysis. This preference is driven mostly by excess power from E-mode polarization at multipoles of 10 ≲ ℓ ≲ 20, which may reflect remaining systematic errors in the data, a statistical fluctuation or signatures of the first stars. Measurements from the Planck High-Frequency Instrument should be able to confirm or refute this hint and future cosmic-variance-limited E-mode polarization surveys can provide substantially more information on these signatures.

Planckintermediate results

This paper describes the identification, modelling, and removal of previously unexplained systematic effects in the polarization data of the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) on large angular scales, including new mapmaking and calibration procedures, new and more complete end-to-end simulations, and a set of robust internal consistency checks on the resulting maps. These maps, at 100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz, are early versions of those that will be released in final form later in 2016. The improvements allow us to determine the cosmic reionization optical depth $\tau$ using, for the first time, the low-multipole $EE$ data from HFI, reducing significantly the central value and uncertainty, and hence the upper limit. Two different likelihood procedures are used to constrain $\tau$ from two estimators of the CMB $E$- and $B$-mode angular power spectra at 100 and 143 GHz, after debiasing the spectra from a small remaining systematic contamination. These all give fully consistent results. A further consistency test is performed using cross-correlations derived from the Low Frequency Instrument maps of the Planck 2015 data release and the new HFI data. For this purpose, end-to-end analyses of systematic effects from the two instruments are used to demonstrate the near independence of their dominant systematic error residuals. The tightest result comes from the HFI-based $\tau$ posterior distribution using the maximum likelihood power spectrum estimator from $EE$ data only, giving a value $0.055\pm 0.009$. In a companion paper these results are discussed in the context of the best-fit Planck $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model and recent models of reionization.

Analysing the impact of far-out sidelobes on the imaging performance of the SKA-LOW telescope

The Square Kilometre Array's Low Frequency instrument (SKA-LOW) will be the most sensitive aperture array ever used for radio astronomy, and will operate in the under-sampled regime for most of the frequency band where grating-lobes pose particular challenges. To achieve the expected level of sensitivity for SKA-LOW, it is particularly important to understand how interfering sources in both near and far side-lobes of the station beam affect the imaging performance. We discuss options for station designs, and adopting a random element layout, we assess its effectiveness by investigating how sources far from the main lobe of the station beam degrade images of the target field. These sources have the effect of introducing a noise-like corruption to images, which we call the Far Side-lobe Source Noise (FSSN). Using OSKAR, a GPU-accelerated software simulator, we carried out end-to-end simulations using an all-sky model and telescope configuration representative of the SKA-LOW instrument. The FSSN is a function of both the station beam and the interferometric point spread function, and decreases with increasing observation time until the coverage of the aperture plane no longer improves. Using apodisation to reduce the level of near-in side-lobes of the station beam had a noticeable improvement on the level of FSSN at low frequencies. Our results indicate that the effects of picking up sources in the side-lobes are worse at low frequencies, where the array is less sparse.

Temporal asynchrony and rhythm perception: Neural bases of perceptual asymmetries

Temporal gap detection has been proposed as a perceptual and neural measure of temporal resolution. This measure has not shown strong frequency dependence but, if anything, high frequencies have been found to produce slightly lower (better) thresholds than very low frequencies. In apparent contradiction to these findings, a recent study claimed superior time perception for lower frequencies and proposed the finding as an explanation for why low-frequency instruments typically carry the rhythm in music [Hove et al. (2014), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, 10383-10388]. The present study reviewed those findings and replicated them, but found that the results in fact reflect an asymmetry in asynchrony detection, reported earlier, whereby asynchronies are more readily detected when the lower-frequency tone is leading than when the higher-frequency tone is leading [Wojtczak et al., (2012). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 131, 363-377]. New results using behavioral and EEG approaches reconcile the data from these differe...