GLEAM: The GaLactic and Extragalactic All-Sky MWA Survey. (22nd June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wayth, R. B.; Lenc, E.; Bell, M. E.; Callingham, J. R.; Dwarakanath, K. S.; Franzen, T. M. O.; For, B.-Q.; Gaensler, B.; Hancock, P.; Hindson, L.; Hurley-Walker, N.; Jackson, C. A.; Johnston-Hollitt, M.; Kapińska, A. D.; McKinley, B.; Morgan, J.; Offringa, A. R.; Procopio, P.; Staveley-Smith, L.; Wu, C.; Zheng, Q.; Trott, C. M.; Bernardi, G.; Bowman, J. D.; Briggs, F.; Cappallo, R. J.; Corey, B. E.; Deshpande, A. A.; Emrich, D.; Goeke, R.; Greenhill, L. J.; Hazelton, B. J.; Kaplan, D. L.; Kasper, J. C.; Kratzenberg, E.; Lonsdale, C. J.; Lynch, M. J.; McWhirter, S. R.; Mitchell, D. A.; Morales, M. F.; Morgan, E.; Oberoi, D.; Ord, S. M.; Prabu, T.; Rogers, A. E. E.; Roshi, A.; Shankar, N. Udaya; Srivani, K. S.; Subrahmanyan, R.; Tingay, S. J.; Waterson, M.; Webster, R. L.; Whitney, A. R.; Williams, A.; Williams, C. L.;
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Volume 32(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-06-22
• Subjects: Galaxy: general, -- radio continuum: general, -- radio lines: general, -- surveys; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Southern sky (Astronomy) -- Periodicals; Astrophysics -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1017/pasa.2015.26
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1323-3580

Abstract

Abstract: GLEAM, the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA survey, is a survey of the entire radio sky south of declination + 25° at frequencies between 72 and 231 MHz, made with the MWA using a drift scan method that makes efficient use of the MWA's very large field-of-view. We present the observation details, imaging strategies, and theoretical sensitivity for GLEAM. The survey ran for two years, the first year using 40-kHz frequency resolution and 0.5-s time resolution; the second year using 10-kHz frequency resolution and 2 s time resolution. The resulting image resolution and sensitivity depends on observing frequency, sky pointing, and image weighting scheme. At 154 MHz, the image resolution is approximately 2.5 × 2.2/cos (δ + 26.7°) arcmin with sensitivity to structures up to ~ 10° in angular size. We provide tables to calculate the expected thermal noise for GLEAM mosaics depending on pointing and frequency and discuss limitations to achieving theoretical noise in Stokes I images. We discuss challenges, and their solutions, that arise for GLEAM including ionospheric effects on source positions and linearly polarised emission, and the instrumental polarisation effects inherent to the MWA's primary beam.