Start date
28/09/2026 14:30
End date
28/09/2026 16:00
Place
Dipartimento di Fisica - Aula Magna
Speakers
Oleg Smirnov
Rhodes University, South Africa
Rhodes University, South Africa
With the increased sensitivity and field of view of SKA pathfinders,
dynamic radio imaging (imaging the time axis) is becoming a burgeoning
field, yielding rich new discoveries of transients and variable
sources. MeerKAT's exquisite instantaneous sensitivity (<150 uJy image
rms in an 8s integration) opens up studies of variability on much
shorter timescales than was possible with previous radio
interferometers. This also has important implications for
interferometric SETI, since any potential technosignatures would be a
subset of such transient events.
At the same time, imaging at such short timescales introduces its own
substantial challenges. Instrumental effects that tend to average out
in a traditional long synthesis observation can become limiting for
dynamic imaging if not addressed correctly. I will discuss these
challenges and present MeerKAT dynamic imaging of Jupiter’s radiation
belts, which has led to the serendipitous discovery of a pulsar-type
object named the PARROT (pulsar with abnormal refraction recurring on
odd timescales). This result suggests that archival data must be
hiding many more such objects.
This work has led to the development of (and given the name to) a more
general dynamic imaging pipeline, developed in collaboration with the
Breakthrough Listen initiative. The TRON pipeline is capable of
detecting short-duration transients in imaging data, and generating
light curves and dynamic spectra for thousands of field sources en
masse. We have kicked off an effort to “mine” archival MeerKAT data
with TRON, which has already yielded a number of exciting discoveries,
some of which I will showcase. The longer-term plan is to develop the
TRON pipeline to a state where it can be run in real-time, commensally
with any MeerKAT imaging observation. This would open the door to
transient event triggers -- something that has never been done with a
radio interferometer before.
dynamic radio imaging (imaging the time axis) is becoming a burgeoning
field, yielding rich new discoveries of transients and variable
sources. MeerKAT's exquisite instantaneous sensitivity (<150 uJy image
rms in an 8s integration) opens up studies of variability on much
shorter timescales than was possible with previous radio
interferometers. This also has important implications for
interferometric SETI, since any potential technosignatures would be a
subset of such transient events.
At the same time, imaging at such short timescales introduces its own
substantial challenges. Instrumental effects that tend to average out
in a traditional long synthesis observation can become limiting for
dynamic imaging if not addressed correctly. I will discuss these
challenges and present MeerKAT dynamic imaging of Jupiter’s radiation
belts, which has led to the serendipitous discovery of a pulsar-type
object named the PARROT (pulsar with abnormal refraction recurring on
odd timescales). This result suggests that archival data must be
hiding many more such objects.
This work has led to the development of (and given the name to) a more
general dynamic imaging pipeline, developed in collaboration with the
Breakthrough Listen initiative. The TRON pipeline is capable of
detecting short-duration transients in imaging data, and generating
light curves and dynamic spectra for thousands of field sources en
masse. We have kicked off an effort to “mine” archival MeerKAT data
with TRON, which has already yielded a number of exciting discoveries,
some of which I will showcase. The longer-term plan is to develop the
TRON pipeline to a state where it can be run in real-time, commensally
with any MeerKAT imaging observation. This would open the door to
transient event triggers -- something that has never been done with a
radio interferometer before.