On using visibility correlations to probe the H i distribution from the dark ages to the present epoch – I. Formalism and the expected signal

Redshifted 21-cm radiation originating from the cosmological distribution of neutral hydrogen (H  i ) appears as background radiation in low-frequency radio observations. The angular and frequency domain fluctuations in this radiation carry information concerning cosmological structure formation. We propose that correlations between visibilities measured at different baselines and frequencies in radio-interferometric observations be used to quantify the statistical properties of these fluctuations. This has an inherent advantage over other statistical estimators in that it deals directly with the visibilities which are the primary quantities measured in radio-interferometric observations. Also, the visibility correlation has a very simple relation with the power spectrum. We present estimates of the expected signal for nearly the entire post-recombination era, from the dark ages to the present epoch. The epoch of reionization, where H  i has a patchy distribution, has a distinct signature where the signal is determined by the size of the discrete ionized regions. The signal at other epochs, where H  i follows the dark matter, is determined largely by the power spectrum of dark matter fluctuations. The signal is strongest for baselines where the antenna separations are within a few hundred times the wavelength of observation, and an optimal strategy would preferentially sample these baselines. In the frequency domain, for most baselines the visibilities at two different frequencies are uncorrelated beyond  Δν∼ 1 MHz  , a signature which, in principle, would allow the H  i signal to be easily distinguished from the continuum sources of contamination.     

Prospects of Measuring the Angular Power Spectrum of the Diffuse Galactic Synchrotron Emission with SKA1 Low

The Diffuse Galactic Syncrotron Emission (DGSE) is the most important diffuse foreground component for future cosmological 21-cm observations. The DGSE is also an important probe of the cosmic ray electron and magnetic field distributions in the turbulent interstellar medium (ISM) of our galaxy. In this paper we briefly review the Tapered Gridded Estimator (TGE) which can be used to quantify the angular power spectrum C _? of the sky signal directly from the visibilities measured in radio-interferometric observations. The salient features of the TGE are: (1) it deals with the gridded data which makes it computationally very fast, (2) it avoids a positive noise bias which normally arises from the system noise inherent to the visibility data, and (3) it allows us to taper the sky response and thereby suppresses the contribution from unsubtracted point sources in the outer parts and the side lobes of the antenna beam pattern. We also summarize earlier work where the TGE was used to measure the C _? of the DGSE using 150 MHz GMRT data. Earlier measurements of C _? are restricted to \(\ell \le \ell _{\max } \sim 10^{3}\) for the DGSE, the signal at the larger ? values is dominated by the residual point sources after source subtraction. The higher sensitivity of the upcoming SKA1 Low will allow the point sources to be subtracted to a fainter level than possible with existing telescopes. We predict that it will be possible to measure the C _? of the DGSE to larger values of \(\ell _{\max }\) with SKA1 Low. Our results show that it should be possible to achieve \(\ell _{\max }\sim 10^{4}\) and ～10⁵ with 2 minutes and 10 hours of observations respectively.     

Relations between the sporadicE-layer and geomagnetic disturbances in the northern auroral and polar regions

Zusammenfassung Unter Anwendung der auf 12 Uhr GMT bezogenen Beobachtungen aus den 33 ionosph?rischen und geomagnetischen Stationen wurde eine statistische Analyse der Beziehungen zwischen dem Vorkommen der sporadischen E-Schicht und den geomagnetischen St?rungen durchgeführt. Es wurde keine einfache oder eindeutige Abh?ngigkeit gefunden. Die Ergebnisse deuten nur an, dass man gr?sseres Vorkommen der sporadischen E-Schicht in magnetisch mehr gest?rten Zeitabschnitten erwarten kann.

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Address: Bočni II, Praha 4-Spořilov.     

The fluvial record in the Czech Republic: A review in the context of IGCP 518

The Czech Republic comprises two geologically diverse provinces. The western part is an ancient, long-stabilized crystalline (slowly uplifting) massif, the Bohemian Massif, whereas the eastern part is the younger and tectonically more mobile Carpathian Foredeep and the West Carpathian mountain ranges. The Late Cenozoic fluvial record, controlled in essence by cyclic climate-driven changes of the environment shows discernible differences in both provinces and, therefore, the paper deals with these separately. In the Bohemian Massif a regular development of terrace staircases is noted, making internally consistent correlation possible. Problems that remain open to debate include dating the start of fluvial terrace staircase development, and correlating the fluvial terraces with the succession of Scandinavian glaciations that have affected the northernmost Czech Republic. On the other hand, the fluvial records in the southeastern Czech Republic show significant lateral variations; thus, northern, central and southern Moravia are reviewed separately in this paper. The terrace system in northern Moravia formed in direct contact with the ice sheet during two Scandinavian glaciations, whereas only periglacial or extraglacial conditions developed further south. Nevertheless, the existence of the Main Terrace as an important stratigraphical index horizon allows the reliable correlation of the terrace systems of all the larger Moravian rivers, despite their fragmentary development.     

The filtering effect of orbit correction on geopotential errors

Summary The geophysical interpretation of satellite tracking residuals generally ignores the filtering effect of initial orbit correction on the true errors of the model. While the filtered information is usually regarded as lost, knowing the spectral characteristics of the filter is a great aid in the detailed interpretation of residuals, especially of global data sets. In this regard, we derive the filter characteristics (admittances) of orbit correction in the presence of geopotential-caused trajectory errors. We then apply the filter to determine the likely power of the lost radial information in crossover differences of sea heights determined from satellite altimetry or in the latitude lumped coefficients derived from them. For example, we find that resonant geopotential information with periods longer than the corrected orbit's arc length is largely lost in residual crossover data. Results are given for GEOSAT, ERS-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon in their Exact Repeat Missions, using calibrated variancecovariance matrices of the harmonic geopotential coefficients of several recent Earth gravity models. To prove that filtering is important, we first employed a simple cut of all perturbing terms with periods longer than the general tracking period (4 days for GEOSAT and ERS-1, and 10 days for TOPEX). But the cut is too crude a method from a theoretical viewpoint, and thus, we developed two new filters. A comparison of their admittances explains the differences (and sometimes anomalous behaviour) between them and the cut. Many numerical examples (single-satellite crossover errors and latitude lumped coefficient errors, as projected from the variance-covariance matrices) are presented.This paper has been presented during the Panel on Satellite Dynamics, at COSPAR 1994, in Hamburg, Germany.     

Irregularpi2 pulsations resolved into a superposition of sinusoidal oscillations

Zusammenfassung Als Grundlage der Arbeit dient das Verfahren, dem zufolge man eine unregelmässige Schwingung auf die Summe der Sinusschwingungen überführen kann. Man geht dabei vom Komplexspektrum der gegebenen Schwingung aus, von dem Spektren der Sinusschwingungen mit entsprechender Frequenz, Amplitude und Phase sukzessiv abgezogen werden. Die beschriebene Methode wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit für magnetische und tellurische Pi2-Pulsationen angewendet. Man hat gefunden, dass die Pi2-Pulsationen aus 3–6 Schwingungen bestehen. Auf solche Weise entstand das Material für die magnetotellurische Sondierung. Die Ergebnisse schliessen gut an die Pc3-Pulsationen an. Der Hauptbeitrag des beschriebenen Verfahrens liegt darin, dass die Anzahl der Punkte zum Finden des spezifischen Widerstandes, und zwar in verschiedenen Perioden, erhöht wird.