| Description |
1 online resource (540 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover; Half-title; Title page; Copyright information; Dedication; Contents; Preface; Part I The Emission, Propagation, and Detection of Radio Waves; 1 The Role of Radio Observations in Astronomy; 1.1 The Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves; 1.2 The Origins of Radio Astronomy; 1.3 Thermal and Non-Thermal Radiation Processes; 1.4 Radio Observations; 1.5 The Challenge of Manmade Radio Signals; 1.6 Further Reading; 2 Emission and General Properties of Radio Waves; 2.1 Electromagnetic Waves; 2.2 Wave Polarization; 2.2.1 The Polarization Ellipse; 2.3 Blackbody Radiation |
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2.4 Specific Intensity and Brightness2.5 Radiative Transfer; 2.6 Free-Free Radiation; 2.7 Synchrotron Radiation; 2.7.1 A Power-Law Energy Distribution; 2.7.2 Synchrotron Self-Absorption; 2.8 Inverse Compton Scattering; 2.9 Further Reading; 3 Spectral Lines; 3.1 Radio Recombination Lines; 3.2 Hyperfine Atomic Ground-State Transitions; 3.3 Rotational Lines; 3.4 Degeneracy Broken by Rotation; 3.5 Detected Lines; 3.6 Linewidths; 3.6.1 Line Emission and Absorption; 3.7 Masers; 3.7.1 Common Masers; 3.8 Further Reading; 4 Radio Wave Propagation; 4.1 Refractive Index |
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4.1.1 Dispersion and Group Velocity4.2 Faraday Rotation; 4.3 Scintillation; 4.4 Propagation in the Earth's Atmosphere; 4.5 Further Reading; 5 The Nature of the Received Radio Signal; 5.1 Gaussian Random Noise; 5.2 Brightness Temperature and Flux Density; 5.2.1 Brightness Temperatures of Astronomical Sources; 5.3 Antenna Temperature; 5.3.1 Adding Noise Powers; 5.3.2 Sources of Antenna Noise; 5.3.3 Measuring the Antenna Temperature; 5.4 Further Reading; 6 Radiometers; 6.1 The Basic Radiometer; 6.1.1 Impedance Matching and Power Transfer; 6.1.2 Power Amplification; 6.1.3 Bandwidth and Coherence |
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6.2 Detection and Integration6.3 Post-Detection Signals; 6.3.1 Time Series; 6.3.2 Spectrum; 6.3.3 Recognizing a Weak Source; 6.4 System Noise Temperature; 6.4.1 Receiver Temperature; 6.4.2 Receivers for Millimetre and Sub-Millimetre Waves; 6.4.3 System Equivalent Flux Density (SEFD); 6.5 Calibration of the System Noise; 6.5.1 Receiver Noise Calibration; 6.5.2 Secondary Methods; 6.5.3 Relative and Absolute Calibration; 6.6 Heterodyne Receivers; 6.7 Tracing Noise Power through a Receiver; 6.8 Gain Variations and Their Correction; 6.8.1 Dicke Switched Radiometer; 6.8.2 Correlation Radiometers |
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6.9 Digital Techniques6.10 Further Reading; 7 Spectrometers and Polarimeters; 7.1 Spectrometers; 7.1.1 Filter-Bank Spectrometers; 7.2 Autocorrelation Spectrometers; 7.2.1 Linewidth and the Window Function; 7.3 Digital Autocorrelation Spectrometers; 7.3.1 Fast Fourier Transform Spectrometers; 7.4 Polarimetry; 7.5 Stokes Parameters; 7.5.1 Choice of Orthogonal Polarizations; 7.6 Polarized Waveguide Feeds; 7.6.1 Linear Feeds and Quadrature Hybrids; 7.7 A Basic Polarimeter; 7.8 Practical Considerations; 7.9 Further Reading; Part II Radio Telescopes and Aperture Synthesis |
| Summary |
Radio astronomy is an active and rapidly expanding field due to advances in computing techniques, with several important new instruments on the horizon. This text provides a thorough introduction to radio astronomy and its contribution to our understanding of the universe, bridging the gap between basic introductions and research-level treatments. It begins by covering the fundamentals physics of radio techniques, before moving on to single-dish telescopes and aperture synthesis arrays. Fully updated and extensively rewritten, the fourth edition places greater emphasis on techniques, with detailed discussion of interferometry in particular, and comprehensive coverage of digital techniques in the appendices. The science sections are fully revised, with new author Peter N. Wilkinson bringing added expertise to the sections on pulsars, quasars and active galaxies. Spanning the entirety of radio astronomy, this is an engaging introduction for students and researchers approaching radio astronomy for the first time |
| Notes |
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 29 Aug 2019) |
| Subject |
Astronomical instruments.
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Physics.
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Astrophysics.
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Physics
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astronomical instruments.
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physics.
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astrophysics.
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Astronomical instruments
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Astrophysics
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Physics
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Graham-Smith, Francis, 1923- author.
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Wilkinson, Peter N., 1946- author.
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| ISBN |
9781316987506 |
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1316987507 |
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