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M.P. Haynes, R. Giovanelli, C.M. Springob, A. Saintonge, K. Spekkens, K.L. Masters, B. Catinella, B. Kent (Cornell U.), R.J. Maddalena (NRAO), L. Magnani (U. Georgia), R.A. Koopmann (Union College and Cornell U.)
Recent advances in centimeter wave technology and high speed computing are enabling wide-area blind HI surveys that can provide a true census of HI bearing objects in the nearby universe. While the HIPASS and HIJASS surveys are providing the first all-sky look at the extragalactic HI sky, the Arecibo and Green Bank telescopes will in the future explore the HI mass function to smaller masses and over more distant volumes. Surveys with Arecibo and the GBT will exploit the stability and low noise of radio telescope systems, the flexibility and capacity of data aquisition schemes, and the power and sophistication of image processing, interference excision and signal detection algorithms. As a prelude to surveys with the Arecibo L-band feed array (ALFA) in 2005, we have begun two pilot projects with the Arecibo and Green Bank telescopes which allow us to test data acquisition, processing and analysis strategies. At Arecibo, we have undertaken a survey of some 96 square degrees of sky encompassing very local (within 10 Mpc) enhancements in the galaxy density, testing modes of driving the telescope, on-the-fly mapping and drift scanning. At Green Bank, we have begun a drift scan survey toward the center of the Local Supercluster including the Virgo cluster and its foreground in piggy-back mode with a survey designed to study high latitude Galactic HI with the GBT's clean beam. We will discuss results of our pilot programs including practical observing strategies, methods of calibration, spectral flattening and baseline removal, and schemes for rfi excision and signal detection and extraction.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.