Spurious signals at MATERA and further discussion related to this issue.



Content:

Initial plots.

Plots of dependence of normalized amplitude of phase calibration on phase of phase calibration at channel #4, frequency 8512.99MHz for station MATERA.
$99MAY18XA, frequency 8512.99MHz
$99JUN01XA, frequency 8512.99MHz

Plots of dependence of normalized amplitude of phase calibration on phase of phase calibration at channel #3, frequency 8352.99MHz for station MATERA.

$99MAY18XA, frequency 8352.99MHz
$99JUN01XA, frequency 8352.99MHz

System temperature in zenith direction was about 160K for $99MAY18XA experiment.

Plots of dependence of normalized amplitude of phase calibration on phase of phase calibration at channel #3, frequency 8352.99MHz and at the channel #4, frequency 8512.99MHz for station MATERA for an experiment $97JUN03XA (ca011). System temperature in zenith direction was 46.9-+0.5K at channel #3 and 47.8-+1.0K at channel #4.

$97JUN03XA, frequency 8352.99 MHz
$97JUN03XA, frequency 8512.99 MHz

Reply from Matera VLBI team.

  1. Letter of 13 Jul 1999 15:19:54


  2. Letter of 14 Jul 1999 16:10:07


Comments of an expert.

  1. Letter of 12 Jul 1999 12:30:41 EDT


  2. Letter of 15 Jul 1999 18:55:48 EDT


  3. Letter of 19 Jul 1999 18:39:18 EDT


Further plots.

Idea to "unwrap" phase of phase cal turned out to be brilliant. Fixing ambiguities in phase cal phase usually doesn't bring difficulties. Plots of normalized amplitude of phase calibration versus its phase (click
here for details) with resolved ambiguities revealed a really exciting picture:
    $99JUN01XA, frequency 8252.99MHz
    $99JUN01XA, frequency 8352.99MHz
    $99JUN01XA, frequency 8512.99MHz


    $99MAY18XA, frequency 8352.99MHz
    $99MAY18XA, frequency 8512.99MHz


    $99APR26XA, frequency 8420.99MHz
    $99APR26XA, frequency 8500.99MHz
    $99APR26XA, frequency 8550.99MHz


    $97JUN03XA, frequency 8352.99MHz
    $97JUN03XA, frequency 8512.99MHz
You can get a rule and measure the distance between peaks. It should appear about predicted 1.25. Unfortunately, I didn't find a rule on my table, so I've updated phase_doctor and added new a option: estimation of mean value of phase calibration amplitude as well as estimation of amplitude and phase some harmonics. I chose 4 suspicious harmonics with frequencies 0.75, 1.00, 1.25 and 2.00 cycles. Results are presented in the table below. Units: share of total power for "Amplitude of phase cal", share of amplitude of phase cal for all others quantities. Symbols "*", "**", "$$" indicate on significance of estimates, the latter hints that we may spend waistly some amount of tax-payer's $ if we will not fix the problem.
-------------------------------------------
 $99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8212.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0392 -+ .00004
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0080 -+ .0021
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0024 -+ .0023
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0008 -+ .0021
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0051 -+ .0017
 Residual noise:                   .009
-------------------------------------------

99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8252.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0377 -+ .00008
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0388 -+ .0046  *
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0056 -+ .0050
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0069 -+ .0045
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0016 -+ .0034
 Residual noise:                   .017
 -------------------------------------------

 $99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8352.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0401 -+ .00004
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0828 -+ .0024  $$
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0145 -+ .0022  *
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0075 -+ .0020
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0020 -+ .0016
 Residual noise:                   .009
 -------------------------------------------

 99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8512.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0372 -+ .00005
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .1214 -+ .0028  $$
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0319 -+ .0031  **
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0148 -+ .0024  *
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0038 -+ .0022
 Residual noise:                   .012
 -------------------------------------------

 $99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8732.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0378 -+ .00004
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0048 -+ .0020
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0083 -+ .0025
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0055 -+ .0023
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0029 -+ .0020
 Residual noise:                   .011
 -------------------------------------------

 $99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8852.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0349 -+ .00004
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0052 -+ .0027
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0074 -+ .0024
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0027 -+ .0022
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0053 -+ .0017
 Residual noise:                   .012
 -------------------------------------------

 $99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8912.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0356 -+ .00005
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0096 -+ .0024
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0034 -+ .0025
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0051 -+ .0022
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0019 -+ .0018
 Residual noise:                   .013
 -------------------------------------------

 $99JUN01XA MATERA   "X" Channel 8932.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0358 -+ .00005
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0030 -+ .0030
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0089 -+ .0029
 1.25 cycle frequency:    .0057 -+ .0034
 2.00 cycle frequency:    .0048 -+ .0027
 Residual noise:                   .015
 -------------------------------------------
Remarkably, my eye didn't tell me about 1.00 periodcity for channel 8352.99. We can estimate amplitude and phase of sourious signals at frequencies 0.75 and 1.00 only, but it doesn't change results noticeably:
 $99JUN01XA MATERA   "X"  #3 Ch. 8352.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0402 -+ .00004
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .0771 -+ .0018  $$
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0089 -+ .0018
 Residual noise:                   .010
 -------------------------------------------

$99JUN01XA MATERA   "X"  #4 Ch. 8512.99 MHz
 Amplitude of phase cal:  .0373 -+ .00005
 -------------------------------------------
 0.75 cycle frequency:    .1114 -+ .0022  $$
 1.00 cycle frequency:    .0261 -+ .0022  **
 Residual noise:                   .014
 -------------------------------------------

Other stations.

WESTFORD in 99JUN01XA

 --------------|------------------------|--------|------------|------  
               |                        | Ampl   | Sigma      | Noise
 --------------|------------------------|--------|------------|------  
 #1 8212.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0138 -+ .0032  *   | .025
 #2 8252.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0097 -+ .0024      | .019
 #3 8352.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0228 -+ .0021  **  | .018
 #4 8512.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0066 -+ .0025      | .018
 #5 8732.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0036 -+ .0024      | .016
 #6 8852.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0064 -+ .0026      | .021 
 #7 8912.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0100 -+ .0027  *   | .024
 #8 8932.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0063 -+ .0029      | .021

 #1 2227.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0253 -+ .0029  *   | .020
 #2 2237.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0031 -+ .0028      | .020
 #3 2257.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0084 -+ .0023      | .018
 #4 2312.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0081 -+ .0032      | .022
 #5 2347.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0063 -+ .0030      | .020
 #6 2352.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0061 -+ .0029      | .019
 --------------|------------------------|--------|------------|------  
Here units are fraction of amplitude of phase cal signal. Plots of phase calibration amplitude versus its phase:

HARTRAO in 99JUN01XA

 --------------|------------------------|--------|------------|------  
               |                        | Ampl   | Sigma      | Noise
 --------------|------------------------|--------|------------|------  
 #1 8212.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0139 -+ .0014  **  | .007
 #8 8912.99 MHz  1.00 cycle periodicity:  .0141 -+ .0014  **  | .007
 --------------|------------------------|--------|------------|------  
Here units are fraction of amplitude of phase cal signal.
Back to home page of phase cal spurious signals
Back to home page of the Bonn VLBI group
This page was prepared by Leonid Petrov.
Last update: 20-JUL-99 14:50:00