Sub-kilometre scale ionospheric studies at the SKA-Low site, using MWA extended baselines

TL;DR

This study characterizes ionospheric effects at the SKA-Low site using MWA extended baselines, revealing complex structures that necessitate advanced calibration techniques for future radio astronomy observations.

Contribution

It provides empirical analysis of ionospheric spatial and temporal scales at SKA-Low, informing calibration strategies for next-generation radio telescopes.

Findings

50% of ionospheric screens show non-linear structures >0.6 km

Sub-minute temporal changes detected in 1% of screens

Non-linear corrections needed at 88 MHz and 154 MHz under certain weather conditions

Abstract

The ambitious scientific goals of SKA require a matching capability for calibration of instrumental and atmospheric propagation contributions as functions of time, frequency and position. The development of novel calibration algorithms to meet these requirements is an active field of research. In this work {we aim to characterize} these, focusing on the spatial and temporal structure scales of the ionospheric effects; ultimately, these provide the guidelines for designing the optimum calibration strategy. We used empirical ionospheric measurements at the site where the SKA-Low will be built, using MWA Phase-2 Extended baseline observations and the station-based Low-frequency Excision of Atmosphere in Parallel (LEAP) calibration algorithm. We have done this via direct regression analysis of the ionospheric screens and by forming the full and detrended structure functions. We found that 50% of the screens show significant non-linear structures at scales >0.6km that dominate at >2km, and 1% show significant sub-minute temporal changes, providing that there is sufficient sensitivity. Even at the moderate sensitivity and baseline lengths of MWA, non-linear corrections are required at 88 MHz during moderate-weather and at 154 MHz during poor weather, or for high SNR measurements. Therefore we predict that improvements will come from correcting for higher-order defocusing effects in observations with MWA Phase-2, and further with new developments in MWA Phase-3. Because of the giant leap in sensitivity, the correction for complex ionospheric structures will be mandatory on SKA-Low, for both imaging and tied-array beam formation.