<p>I am looking for a raw radio-astronomic antenna array dataset of relatively modest size (on the order a few MB, or even less), to evaluate a data processing algorithm. The dataset ideally should be simultaneously sampled received signals from several antennae with known positions, containing a number of sources differing in direction of arrival and/or frequency. </p>

<p>Perhaps, some python library with standard algorithms for building a 2D "synthetic aperture image" of radio sources might have bundled example data, which would satisfy me. I have come across the LOFAR database, which seems huge and requires complicated processing pipeline, so my question may be along the lines of "how to get a small drink from a firehose". </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-03T14:55:50.200Z
Don't think that possible with the LOFAR database. In the early days, their data processing took weeks to produce a single correlated picture, because you have to take in all the data at once. I would recommend to look for single dish databases.
AtmosphericPrisonEscape
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-03T14:59:09.320Z
May a single dish produce 2D dataset, allowing to reconstruct a 2D picture?
Mikhail Kagalenko
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-03T15:02:11.783Z
Of course. A picture (oversimplified) is just a set of different orientations of your central beam, and then mapping the intensities you measure according to where the antenna/dish/CCD was oriented.
AtmosphericPrisonEscape
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-03T15:03:46.263Z
But that would be an intensities dataset, not coherent data, wouldn't it? I want to try interferometric processing.
Mikhail Kagalenko
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-03T15:09:14.020Z
Well, intensity interferometry is also attempted at being done (in the visible, with the Cherenkov Telescope Array), although I'm unclear on the details of this. If you want to do phase interferometry, then I unfortunately don't know how where to get that data from. But I would always recommend to start small, lest you get overwhelmed by too many baselines. Are there observatories that have only one baseline? The russian Spektr-R comes to my mind, but I don't know if their data is public.
AtmosphericPrisonEscape
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-03T15:11:24.117Z
It doesn't have to be one baseline. Intensity interferometry in the visible wavelengths, as far as I understand, is based on Hanbury-Brown-Twiss effect, which is statistical, so completely different mathematically.
Mikhail Kagalenko
<radio-astronomy><data-analysis><radio-telescope><raw-data><lofar>
Open dataset from antenna array
Mikhail Kagalenko
# Open dataset from antenna array

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-10-03)

I am looking for a raw radio-astronomic antenna array dataset of relatively modest size (on the order a few MB, or even less), to evaluate a data processing algorithm. The dataset ideally should be simultaneously sampled received signals from several antennae with known positions, containing a number of sources differing in direction of arrival and/or frequency.

Perhaps, some python library with standard algorithms for building a 2D "synthetic aperture image" of radio sources might have bundled example data, which would satisfy me. I have come across the LOFAR database, which seems huge and requires complicated processing pipeline, so my question may be along the lines of "how to get a small drink from a firehose".

**Tags:** radio-astronomy, data-analysis, radio-telescope, raw-data, lofar

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Don't think that possible with the LOFAR database. In the early days, their data processing took weeks to produce a single correlated picture, because you have to take in all the data at once. I would recommend to look for single dish databases.  
> **username_0**: May a single dish produce 2D dataset, allowing to reconstruct a 2D picture?  
> **username_1**: Of course. A picture (oversimplified) is just a set of different orientations of your central beam, and then mapping the intensities you measure according to where the antenna/dish/CCD was oriented.  
> **username_0**: But that would be an intensities dataset, not coherent data, wouldn't it? I want to try interferometric processing.  
> **username_1**: Well, intensity interferometry is also attempted at being done (in the visible, with the Cherenkov Telescope Array), although I'm unclear on the details of this. If you want to do phase interferometry, then I unfortunately don't know how where to get that data from. But I would always recommend to start small, lest you get overwhelmed by too many baselines. Are there observatories that have only one baseline? The russian Spektr-R comes to my mind, but I don't know if their data is public.  
> **username_0**: It doesn't have to be one baseline. Intensity interferometry in the visible wavelengths, as far as I understand, is based on Hanbury-Brown-Twiss effect, which is statistical, so completely different mathematically.  

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## 0 answers

