ASKAP Data Products for Project AS111 (ASKAP Pilot Survey for Gravitational Wave Counterparts): images and visibilities

This survey is designed to test and develop ASKAP’s capability to rapidly follow up on gravitational wave detections. When observatories such as LIGO issue event notifications, they will be assessed for the likelihood of a radio counterpart and a target of opportunity event triggered if the chance of detection is high (e.g. in the case of a double neutron star merger). Gravitational wave events often have a large angular uncertainty in their direction of origin, so ASKAP’s wide field of view makes it extremely effective at following up these events. Data processing strategies are similar to those of the VAST survey.

本巡天项目旨在测试并拓展ASKAP（澳大利亚平方公里阵列探路者望远镜，Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder）快速跟进引力波探测事件的能力。当LIGO（激光干涉引力波天文台，Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory）等天文台发布事件通知时，研究人员将评估该事件存在射电对应体的概率；若探测成功率较高（例如双中子星并合事件），则触发机会目标观测任务。引力波事件的起源方向通常存在较大的角不确定性，因此ASKAP的大视场特性使其能够极为高效地开展此类事件的跟进观测。本项目的数据处理策略与VAST巡天基本一致。