Colloq Abstract - Smirnov
November 3, 2023
11:00am Mountain
Oleg Smirnov (SARAO)
Adventures On The Time Frontier, or MeerKAT as a Dynamic Imaging Machine
Abstract
With the increased sensitivity and field of view of SKA pathfinders, dynamic imaging (that is, imaging the time axis) is becoming a burgeoning field yielding rich new discoveries of transients and variable sources. MeerKAT is capable of reaching sub-150 uJy image rms in an 8s integration, which opens up studies of variability on much shorter timescales than was possible with any other past or present instruments. At the same time, imaging at such short timescales introduces its own substantial challenges. Instrumental effects that tend to average out in a traditional long synthesis observation can become limiting for dynamic imaging if not addressed correctly. I will present MeerKAT dynamic imaging of Jupiter's radiation belts, which has led to the serendipitous discovery of a new neutron star tentatively called a PARROT (pulsar with abnormal refraction occurring on odd timescales). I will discuss the calibration and imaging challenges inherent to dynamic imaging, and talk about some new software technologies that make the deployment of dynamic imaging pipelines at scale, potentially turning MeerKAT into a "variability mining" machine.
Local Host: Rick Perley
