Abstract Details
| Name: Divya Oberoi Affiliation: National Centre for Radio Astrophysics Conference ID: ASI2025_534 Title : Enabling Solar and Heliospheric Studies with a SKA-Mid precursor - MeerKAT Authors and Co-Authors : Divya Oberoi 1, Devojyoti Kansabanik 2,3, Deepan Patra 1, Surajit Mondal 4, Rohit Sharma 5, Marcel Gouws 6, Sarah Buchner 6 Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Sun, Solar System, Exoplanets, and Astrobiology Abstract : The first phase of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) is expected to become operational towards the end of this decade. The high dynamic range high fidelity snapshot spectro-polarimetric imaging the SKAO is expected to deliver will go a long way in realizing the well recognised potential of radio observables for solar and heliospheric studies. However, the Sun is the brightest source at SKA-Mid frequencies and its emission can simultaneously be extremely variable across the axes of time, frequency, brightness temperature and polarization properties. So observing the Sun with an instrument optimized for synthesis imaging of sources orders of magnitude fainter comes with a considerable set of challenges. These challenges span the domains from configuring the instrumental signal path such that all parts of it remain in their linear regimes, to developing robust unsupervised imaging pipelines necessary for spectropolarimetric snapshot imaging. While considerable work has been done, over the last decade or so, for preparing for observations with SKA-Low, the similar efforts for SKA-Mid, using its precursor - MeerKAT, have started only recently. Here we summarize the progress which has been made in enabling solar observations with MeerKAT, present some of the first solar images with this instrument along with some illustrative simulations done to build expectations for the expected imaging performance. |