Radio Sources in the NCP Region Observed with the 21 Centimeter Array

TL;DR

This paper presents a catalog of 624 radio sources near the North Celestial Pole observed with the 21 Centimeter Array, analyzing their properties and discussing the challenges in calibration and imaging for epoch of reionization studies.

Contribution

The study provides a detailed low-frequency radio source catalog and insights into calibration challenges, aiding the design of future low-frequency interferometers.

Findings

Good agreement with GMRT and MWA source counts.

Flattening of source counts below ~1 Jy at lower frequencies.

Calibration and deconvolution errors limit current imaging sensitivity.

Abstract

We present a catalog of 624 radio sources detected around the North Celestial Pole (NCP) with the 21 Centimeter Array (21CMA), a radio interferometer dedicated to the statistical measurement of the epoch of reionization (EoR). The data are taken from a 12 h observation made on 2013 April 13, with a frequency coverage from 75 to 175 MHz and an angular resolution of ~ 4 arcmin. The catalog includes flux densities at eight sub-bands across the 21CMA bandwidth and provides the in-band spectral indices for the detected sources. To reduce the complexity of interferometric imaging from the so-called "w" term and ionospheric effects, the present analysis are restricted to the east-west baselines within 1500 m only. The 624 radio sources are found within 5 degrees around the NCP down to ~ 0.1 Jy. Our source counts are compared, and also exhibit a good agreement, with deep low-frequency observations made recently with the GMRT and MWA. In particular, for fainter radio sources below ~ 1 Jy, we find a flattening trend of source counts towards lower frequencies. While the thermal noise (~0.4 mJy) is well controlled to below the confusion limit, the dynamical range (~10^4) and sensitivity of current 21CMA imaging is largely limited by calibration and deconvolution errors, especially the grating lobes of very bright sources, such as 3C061.1, in the NCP field which result from the regular spacings of the 21CMA. We note that particular attention should be paid to the extended sources, and their modeling and removals may constitute a large technical challenge for current EoR experiments. Our analysis may serve as a useful guide to design of next generation low-frequency interferometers like the Square Kilometre Array.