Calibration database for the Murchison Widefield Array All-Sky Virtual Observatory. (2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sokolowski, Marcin; Jordan, Christopher H.; Sleap, Gregory; Williams, Andrew; Wayth, Randall Bruce; Walker, Mia; Pallot, David; Offringa, Andre; Hurley-Walker, Natasha; Franzen, Thomas M. O.; Johnston-Hollitt, Melanie; Kaplan, David L.; Kenney, David; Tingay, Steven J.
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Volume 37(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020
• Subjects: astronomical databases: miscellaneous, -- instrumentation: interferometers, -- methods: data analysis, -- techniques: interferometric, -- virtual observatory tools; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Southern sky (Astronomy) -- Periodicals; Astrophysics -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1017/pasa.2020.17
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1323-3580

Abstract

Abstract: We present a calibration component for the Murchison Widefield Array All-Sky Virtual Observatory (MWA ASVO) utilising a newly developed PostgreSQL database of calibration solutions. Since its inauguration in 2013, the MWA has recorded over 34 petabytes of data archived at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. According to the MWA Data Access policy, data become publicly available 18 months after collection. Therefore, most of the archival data are now available to the public. Access to public data was provided in 2017 via the MWA ASVO interface, which allowed researchers worldwide to download MWA uncalibrated data in standard radio astronomy data formats (CASA measurement sets or UV FITS files). The addition of the MWA ASVO calibration feature opens a new, powerful avenue for researchers without a detailed knowledge of the MWA telescope and data processing to download calibrated visibility data and create images using standard radio astronomy software packages. In order to populate the database with calibration solutions from the last 6 yr we developed fully automated pipelines. A near-real-time pipeline has been used to process new calibration observations as soon as they are collected and upload calibration solutions to the database, which enables monitoring of the interferometric performance of the telescope. Based on this database, we present an analysis of the stability of the MWA calibration solutions over long time intervals.