Interferometric arrays and spatial frequencies

This post features a pretty fun simulation tool that will allow you to experience “by hand” the relation between the geometry of an interferometric array (that is the location of the telescopes or apertures making up the array) and the corresponding so called “uv-coverage”, that shows all the spatial frequencies the interferometric array gives access to.

The left-hand side plot shows the arangement of apertures. The user can select from several pre-set configurations (Y-shaped, hexagonal-grid, non-redundant) and modify them by moving, adding or removing individual apertures.

Moving one aperture by hand and observing what simultaneously happens on the right-hand side display is particularly “enlightening”: for one, you develop a more intuitive of the relation between one aperture and the different interferometric baselines it is involved with. In addition, you can also observe that geometries laying on a regular grid pattern sometimes result in overlapping points in the uv-plane. The only pattern that strictly avoids this situation is the non-redundant geometry.

This tool was developed as a part of the on-line course Eagle Eye Astronomy, hosted on the France Université Numérique website.