Non-Coplanar Baselines

The procedures by which nearly all images are made in Fourier synthesis imaging are based on the assumption that all the coherence measurements are made in a plane. This is strictly true for E-W interferometers, but is false for the EVLA, with the single exception of snapshots. Analysis of the problem shows that the errors associated with the assumption of a planar array increase quadratically with angle from the phase-tracking center. Serious errors result if the product of the angular offset in radians times the angular offset in synthesized beams exceeds unity: θ > λB/D2, where B is the baseline length, D is the antenna diameter, and λ is the wavelength, all in the same units. This effect is most noticeable at λ90 and λ20 cm in the larger configurations, but will be notable in wide-field, high fidelity imaging for other bands and configurations.

Solutions to the problem of imaging wide-field data taken with non-coplanar arrays are well known, and have been implemented in AIPS (IMAGR) and CASA (clean). Refer to the package help files for these tasks, or consult with Rick Perley, Frazer Owen, or Sanjay Bhatnagar for advice. More computationally efficient imaging with non-coplanar baselines is being investigated, such as the "W-projection" method available in CASA; see EVLA Memo 67 for more details.

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