In this course you learn critical aspects of radio astronomy, allowing you to relate radio observations to the astrophysical sources they probe. We thus deal with both the electromagnetic processes in the Universe that produce radio emission, as well as the workings of the telescopes that measure this radio emission.
The course consists of presentation- and discussion sessions, complemented by written exercises and practical computer classes, where you are coached to process state-of-the-art radio interferometry data. The course covers the whole spectrum from Mega-Hertz to sub-millimetre radiation and from the cosmic dawn to galactic star formation, focusing on how to interpret data with different frequency- and spatial resolution.
In particular, the following aspects are covered:
Detection of radio waves, telescope and receiver characteristics
The workings of interferometers and their response
Data processing techniques, such as image deconvolution and self-calibration
The AGN phenomena and the brightest radio sources
Radio properties of the cold and warm interstellar medium
Special radio sources, such as pulsars and masers
Design and data flow characteristics for interferometers like LOFAR, VLBI, ALMA, SKA
Spectral line observation of molecules and HI throughout the universe
Outcome:
After this course you are ready to engage in scientific discussions that concern radio observations of astrophysical phenomena. You can compare how various radio telescopes and observing modes can be used optimally to investigate the astrophysical processes that generate long wavelength emission.
After this course you can:
Write a clear, concise report describing a radio-interferometric data reduction and subsequent image analysis;
Develop a data reduction process from raw radio interferometric data to science-quality images;
Write an observing proposal for an appropriate radio telescope to answer a scientific question;
Analyse quantitatively how radio interferometric concepts affect a specific scientific result;
Explain if and why certain radio image features are astrophysical or not;
Analyse to what extent signals are mutually coherent;
Identify common radio-astronomical data visualizations with their axis labels removed;
Identify the type of astrophysical object visualized in a figure;
Perform basic Fourier-analyses, such as deriving a SINC function andqualitatively predicting the telescope’s response to a small collection of elementary shapes;
Describe (the function of) common components involved in a telescope’s signal processing;
