Advancing foreground removal techniques and calibration methods for the next generation of radio telescopes

当前这一代旨在首次探测再电离时代的射电望远镜都遇到了不可预见的障碍，特别是在涉及到前景移除和望远镜校准的阴谋时。这些障碍基本上都已被克服，尽管考虑到校准步骤的先进前景去除方法将进一步推进这一点。该项目将探索开发这些方法，使用当前的LOFAR数据来评估障碍和解决方案，并将任何成功的方法嵌入SKA EoR关键科学项目数据管道中。该项目将使学生具备模拟、仪器和数据分析方面的广泛知识。该项目的第一部分将重点发展对再电离信号的理解和足够的编码和高性能计算技能，通过产生各种模拟和理解它们背后的参数化。这些模拟将用于测试各种前景方法（新方法有待确定）。该项目的第二部分将评估方法在LOFAR数据上的有效性，可能会结合校准-前景去除反馈回路，以便更稳健地耦合两种方法。使用LOFAR数据和应用不同的前景去除方法将允许从数据中提取进一步的早期科学，例如再电离的总体拓扑结构。在LOFAR数据中出现的任何仪器效应都将被纳入SKA仪器模拟软件OSKAR中，以使SKA模拟尽可能准确。该项目的第三部分将涉及在SKA EoR工作组内将成功的方法/管道路线开发成模块化数据管道，以便设计关键科学项目并最终处理早期调试数据。这些方法在SKA早期调试数据上的应用，将理想地得到一些极早的科学结果，即更深的红移和更低的噪声信号检测。

The current generation of radio telescopes aiming to make a first detection of the Epoch of Reionisation have each come across unforeseen obstacles, particularly when it comes to the conspiracy of foregrounds removal and calibration of the telescope. These obstacles have all largely been overcome though advanced methods of foreground removal which take into account the calibration step would advance this further. This project will explore developing those methods, using current LOFAR data to assess obstacles and solutions and embedding any successes within the SKA EoR Key Science Project data pipeline. This project will result in a broad knowledge of simulation, instrumentation and data analysis. The first part of this project will focus on developing an understanding of the reionisation signal and sufficient coding and HPC skills, through producing various simulations and understanding the parameterisations behind them. These simulations will be used to test various foreground methods (new methods to be determined). The second part of this project will assess the validity of the methods on LOFAR data, possibly incorporating a calibration-foreground removal feedback loop in order to couple the two approaches more robustly. The use of LOFAR data and the application of different foreground removal methods will allow further early science to be extracted from the data, for example the overall topology of reionisation. Any instrumental effects which appear within the LOFAR data will be incorporated into SKA instrument simulation software OSKAR in order to make the SKA simulations as accurate as possible.The third part of this project will involve developing the successful methods/pipeline routes into a modular data pipeline within the SKA EoR working group in order to both design the Key Science Project and eventually process the early commissioning data. The application of these methods on early SKA commissioning data will ideally result in some extremely early science results, namely a deeper redshift and lower noise signal detection.