Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T16:24:27.816Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Basic Testing of the duchamp Source Finder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

T. Westmeier*
Affiliation:
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, M468, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia
A. Popping
Affiliation:
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, M468, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia
P. Serra
Affiliation:
ASTRON, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, the Netherlands
*
CCorresponding author. Email: tobias.westmeier@uwa.edu.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper presents and discusses the results of basic source finding tests in three dimensions (using spectroscopic data cubes) with duchamp, the standard source finder for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. For this purpose, we generated different sets of unresolved and extended Hi model sources. These models were then fed into duchamp, using a range of different parameters and methods provided by the software. The main aim of the tests was to study the performance of duchamp on sources with different parameters and morphologies and assess the accuracy of duchamp's source parametrisation. Overall, we find duchamp to be a powerful source finder capable of reliably detecting sources down to low signal-to-noise ratios and accurately measuring their position and velocity. In the presence of noise in the data, duchamp's measurements of basic source parameters, such as spectral line width and integrated flux, are affected by systematic errors. These errors are a consequence of the effect of noise on the specific algorithms used by duchamp for measuring source parameters in combination with the fact that the software only takes into account pixels above a given flux threshold and hence misses part of the flux. In scientific applications of duchamp these systematic errors would have to be corrected for. Alternatively, duchamp could be used as a source finder only, and source parametrisation could be done in a second step using more sophisticated parametrisation algorithms.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2012

References

Barnes, D. G., et al. , 2001, MNRAS, 322, 486Google Scholar
DeBoer, D. R., et al. , 2009, IEEEP, 97, 1507Google Scholar
Dewdney, P. E., Hall, P. J., Schilizzi, R. T. & Lazio, T. J. L., 2009, IEEEP, 97, 1482Google Scholar
Giovanelli, R., 2005, AJ, 130, 2598Google Scholar
Jonas, J. L., 2009, IEEEP, 97, 1522Google Scholar
Kamphuis, J. J., Sijbring, D. & van Albada, T. S., 1996, A&AS, 116, 15Google Scholar
Kilborn, V. A., 2001, The Distribution of Neutral Hydrogen in the Local Universe, PhD Thesis, University of MelbourneGoogle Scholar
Koribalski, B. S. & Staveley-Smith, L., 2009, WALLABY Proposal Abstract, available at http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/WALLABY/proposal.htmlGoogle Scholar
Lang, R. H., 2003, MNRAS, 342, 738Google Scholar
Meyer, M., 2009, Proc. Sci., PoS(PRA2009)015Google Scholar
Meyer, M. et al. , 2004, MNRAS, 350, 1195Google Scholar
Oosterloo, T., Verheijen, M. A. W., van Cappellen, W., Bakker, L., Heald, G. & Ivashina, M., 2009, Proc. Sci., PoS(SKADS 2009)070Google Scholar
Popping, A., Jurek, R., Westmeier, T., Serra, P., Flöer, L., Meyer, M. & Koribalski, B., 2012, PASA, Special Issue on Source Finding and VisualizationGoogle Scholar
Saintonge, A., 2007, AJ, 133, 2087Google Scholar
Sault, R. J., Teuben, P. J. & Wright, M. C. H., 1995, ASPC, 77, 433Google Scholar
Serra, P., Jurek, R. & Flöer, L., 2012, PASA, Special Issue on Source Finding and VisualizationGoogle Scholar
Starck, J.-L. & Murtagh, F., 2002, Astronomical Image and Data Analysis (Berlin: Springer)Google Scholar
Swaters, R. A., van Albada, T. S., van der Hulst, J. M. & Sancisi, R., 2002, A&A, 390, 829Google Scholar
Westmeier, T. & Johnston, S., 2010, Proc. Sci., PoS(ISKAF2010)056Google Scholar
Whiting, M. T., 2011, DUCHAMP User Guide Version 1.1.13, available at http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/Matthew.Whiting/duchamp/downloads/UserGuide-1.1.13.pdfGoogle Scholar
Whiting, M. T., 2012a, MNRAS, submittedGoogle Scholar
Whiting, M. T., 2012b, PASA, Special Issue on Source Finding and VisualizationGoogle Scholar