Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys

We present a detailed analysis of four of the most widely used radio source-finding packagesin radio astronomy, and a program being developed for the Australian Square Kilometer ArrayPathfinder telescope. The four packages: SEXTRACTOR, SFIND, IMSAD and SELAVY are shown to produce source catalogues w...

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Main Authors: Hancock, Paul, Murphy, T., Gaensler, B., Hopkins, A., Curran, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2012
Online Access:http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/422/2/1812.full.pdf+html
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11571
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author Hancock, Paul
Murphy, T.
Gaensler, B.
Hopkins, A.
Curran, J.
author_facet Hancock, Paul
Murphy, T.
Gaensler, B.
Hopkins, A.
Curran, J.
author_sort Hancock, Paul
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description We present a detailed analysis of four of the most widely used radio source-finding packagesin radio astronomy, and a program being developed for the Australian Square Kilometer ArrayPathfinder telescope. The four packages: SEXTRACTOR, SFIND, IMSAD and SELAVY are shown to produce source catalogues with high completeness and reliability. In this paper we analyse the small fraction (~1 per cent) of cases in which these packages do not perform well.This small fraction of sources will be of concern for the next generation of radio surveyswhich will produce many thousands of sources on a daily basis, in particular for blind radiotransients surveys. From our analysis we identify the ways in which the underlying sourcefinding algorithms fail. We demonstrate a new source-finding algorithm AEGEAN, based on the application of a Laplacian kernel, which can avoid these problems and can produce complete and reliable source catalogues for the next generation of radio surveys.
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publishDate 2012
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-115712017-02-28T01:32:58Z Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys Hancock, Paul Murphy, T. Gaensler, B. Hopkins, A. Curran, J. We present a detailed analysis of four of the most widely used radio source-finding packagesin radio astronomy, and a program being developed for the Australian Square Kilometer ArrayPathfinder telescope. The four packages: SEXTRACTOR, SFIND, IMSAD and SELAVY are shown to produce source catalogues with high completeness and reliability. In this paper we analyse the small fraction (~1 per cent) of cases in which these packages do not perform well.This small fraction of sources will be of concern for the next generation of radio surveyswhich will produce many thousands of sources on a daily basis, in particular for blind radiotransients surveys. From our analysis we identify the ways in which the underlying sourcefinding algorithms fail. We demonstrate a new source-finding algorithm AEGEAN, based on the application of a Laplacian kernel, which can avoid these problems and can produce complete and reliable source catalogues for the next generation of radio surveys. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11571 http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/422/2/1812.full.pdf+html Oxford University Press restricted
spellingShingle Hancock, Paul
Murphy, T.
Gaensler, B.
Hopkins, A.
Curran, J.
Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys
title Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys
title_full Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys
title_fullStr Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys
title_full_unstemmed Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys
title_short Compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys
title_sort compact continuum source finding for next generation radio surveys
url http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/422/2/1812.full.pdf+html
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11571