Radio Aperture Synthesis Visualizer

Antenna Array Configuration

Antenna Array Geometry

Array Configuration Preset

Array Scale / Expansion 1.0x

Interactive Antenna Map (X-Y Coordinates)

Click to add/remove custom antennas (max 50)

Observational Controls

Source Declination 30°

Earth Rotation Track 4.0 hrs

Observation Frequency 15.0 GHz

Fourier Plane & Synthesized Beam

UV Spatial Frequency Coverage ($u, v$ Plane)

Fourier Space

Total UV points sampled: 0

Synthesized Beam (Point Spread Function)

Image Space

Ang. Resolution ($\theta \approx \lambda/B_{\text{max}}$): -- arcsec

CLEAN Deconvolution Lab

Observational Target

1. True Sky Source

2. Dirty Observed Image

3. Clean Components

4. Restored Reconstructed

CLEAN Algorithm Controls

Loop Gain ($\gamma$) 0.10

Max Iterations 150

Iterations 0

Peak Residual 100%

Status IDLE

Aperture Synthesis & CLEAN

Single radio dishes are limited in resolution by their size. **Aperture Synthesis** solves this by correlating signals from an array of smaller antennas, mapping telescope baselines to spatial frequency measurements in the **$uv$-plane**. As Earth rotates, the baselines sweep out elliptical tracks, filling the Fourier plane. The raw image is "dirty" because it is convolved with the **Synthesized Beam** (dirty beam) containing strong sidelobes. The **CLEAN algorithm** deconvolves this by iteratively finding the brightest spots in the dirty image, subtracting the dirty beam, and adding a clean, smoothed Gaussian beam in its place to reconstruct a clean image.