“Kneading”: The Adjustment of Instrumental Phase and Gain Parameters to Suppress Error Patterns in a Synthesis Map

Summary

Often, particular unnatural-looking patterns appear in a synthesis map. An experienced observer can recognize the type of error that produced them and may even be able to apply the corrections necessary to get a better-looking map. A systematic approach is described in this paper: A model of the errors most likely to occur is fitted to the patterns in the map, and the fitted parameters are used to apply corrections. The presence of a point source that can serve as a reference is required. This requirement limits the applicability of the method, but is met by quite a few objects of interest. Where interference from other sources would be too strong, their influence may be reduced by CLEANing the map prior to model fitting. One example of the results for atmospheric position scintillation and one for baseline calibration errors will be shown.