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| Paper: |
Probing Magnetic Fields with GALFACTS |
| Volume: |
461, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XXI |
| Page: |
533 |
| Authors: |
George, S. J.; Stil, J. M.; Andrecut, M.; Taylor, A. R. |
| Abstract: |
GALFACTS is a large-area spectro-polarimetric survey on the Arecibo Radio
telescope. It uses the seven-beam focal plane feed array receiver system (ALFA)
to carry out an imaging survey project of the 12,700 square degrees of sky
visible from Arecibo at 1.4 GHz with 8192 spectral channels over a bandwidth of
300 MHz sampled at 1 millisecond. The aggregate data rate is 875 MB/s. GALFACTS
observations will create full-Stokes image cubes at an angular resolution of
3.5' with a band-averaged sensitivity of 90 μJy, allowing sensitive imaging
of polarized radiation and Faraday Rotation Measure from both diffuse emission
and extragalactic sources. GALFACTS is a scientific pathfinder to the SKA in the
area of cosmic magnetism. Key to magnetism science with the SKA is the technique
of RM synthesis. The technique of RM synthesis is introduced and we discuss
practical aspects of RM synthesis including efficient computational techniques
and detection thresholds in the resulting Faraday spectrum. We illustrate the
use of the technique by presenting the current development of the RM synthesis
pipeline for GALFACTS and present early results. |
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