Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2013
Large radio surveys such as those proposed for several SKA pathfinder and precursor telescopes require (automated) source-finding algorithms that are highly reliable, complete, and fast. Similarly, sophisticated visualisation tools are needed to explore the resulting survey data together with their multi-wavelength counterparts.
In this PASA Special Issue on Source Finding and Visualisation, several advanced source-finding algorithms, including novel methods for radio continuum, polarisation and spectral line surveys are described, tested and compared. The process of finding sources can be considered one of many important steps (e.g., pre-processing, source finding and characterisation, cataloguing/post-processing) in the production of astronomical source catalogues, on which much of the survey science is based.
The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), equipped with novel Chequerboard phased array feeds, will be a powerful 21-cm survey machine. For the large volumes of ASKAP data, a special version of Duchamp, called Selavy, is being developed in consultation with the ASKAP survey science teams (Whiting & Humphreys 2012). Extensive testing and comparisons of existing and new source-finding algorithms were carried out for this PASA Special Issue and are presented by Westmeier, Popping & Serra (2012), Westerlund, Harris & Westmeier (2012), Popping et al. (2012), Huynh et al. (2012), Hollitt & Johnston-Hollitt (2012), Walsh et al. (2012), George, Stil & Keller (2012), Marsh & Jarrett (2012), Allison, Sadler & Whiting (2012) and Jurek & Brown (2012). An overview on spectral line source finding and visualisation is given by Koribalski (2012), while Hassan, Fluke & Barnes (2012) look into real-time 3D volume rendering of large (Tbytes) astronomical data cubes.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.