Wideband Mosaic Imaging with the VLA - quantifying faint source imaging accuracy

TL;DR

This paper evaluates various wideband imaging techniques used in radio interferometry to determine their effectiveness in accurately reconstructing faint source intensities and spectral indices in large-scale surveys.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of wideband mosaic imaging methods, highlighting their accuracy in faint source reconstruction for the first time.

Findings

Different imaging methods vary in accuracy for faint source intensities.

Spectral index reconstruction accuracy differs among methods.

Preliminary results guide optimal method selection for deep surveys.

Abstract

A large number of deep and wide-field radio interferometric surveys are being designed to measure accurate statistics of faint source populations. Most require mosaic observations, and expect to benefit from the sensitivity provided by broad-band instruments. In this paper, we present preliminary results from a comparison of several wideband imaging methods in the context of how accurately they reconstruct the intensities and spectral indices of micro-Jy level sources.