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Radio Astronomy

By Prof. Abhirup Datta   |   IIT Indore
Learners enrolled: 1237   |  Exam registration: 135
ABOUT THE COURSE:
This course is intended to impart the introduce the students to the fascinating world of radio astronomy. Radio astronomy has developed a long way over the last century. Current and upcoming radio telescopes are not only an engineering marvel but also source of the biggest data that can be produced. Addressing the challenges of radio astronomy, we need brightest minds from every discipline. This course can be taken by a student who has no or little exposure to radio astronomy.

PREREQUISITES: a prior knowledge about Fourier Transform and Optics might help.

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: ISRO, Industries in Space Sector, Radio Astronomy Institutes, etc.
Summary
Course Status : Completed
Course Type : Elective
Language for course content : English
Duration : 12 weeks
Category :
  • Physics
Credit Points : 3
Level : Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date : 24 Jul 2023
End Date : 13 Oct 2023
Enrollment Ends : 07 Aug 2023
Exam Registration Ends : 18 Aug 2023
Exam Date : 29 Oct 2023 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.


Page Visits



Course layout

Week 1: Review of Electromagnetic theory: Maxwell’s equations and basics of electric and magnetic fields, Basic Electromagnetic Theory and radiation of electromagnetic waves, E & B Field Measurable quantities and Polarization.
Week 2: Radio Astronomy Fundamentals: Discoveries in Radio Astronomy, Brightness, Flux density, Basics of Radiative Transfer, Black Body Radiation, Nyquist Theorem and Noise Temperature
Week 3: Fundamentals of Antenna Theory: Hertz Dipole, Reciprocity Theorem, Far Field Radiation Pattern, Effective Area, Antenna Temperature, HPBW, Parabolic Reflector Antennas, Aperture Arrays,
Week 4: Signal Processing and Receivers: Square Law Detectors, Fourier Transform, Power Spectrum, Linear Systems, Filters, Mixers, Receiver Calibration and Stability, Coherent and incoherent radiometers, Bolometers, Sampling Theorem, Spectrometers, Correlation receivers and Polarimeters.
Week 5: Single Dish Observations: Calibration Procedures, Metre to cm wavelength calibration strategies, mm-wavelength calibration strategies, Source Confusion, Spectral Line Confusion, Spectroscopy, multi-pixel feeds – focal plane array.
Week 6: Radio Interferometers and Aperture Synthesis: Coherence Function, Two element Interferometers, Correlators, van Cittert-Zernike Equation, Response Interferometers: finite bandwidth, source size and minimum spacing, Time and Bandwidth Smearing, Earth rotation synthesis, Right Ascension and Declination, LST and Hour Angle, Array Design
Week 7: Interferometric Data Analysis and Calibration: Observing Strategies: Calibrators, Bad Data and Radio Frequency Interference, Gridding uv-data, Amplitude and Phase Calibrations, Bandpass Calibration, Imaging and Self calibration, CLEAN and Maximum Entropy Method. Wideband and Widefield imaging techniques, Non-coplanar Arrays, 2-D vs 3-D imaging.
Week 8: Measurement Equation: Wave Polarization, The Poincare Sphere and the Stokes Parameters, Quasi monochromatic Waves, Jones Matrix Formalism, Instrumental Polarization, Calibration for Polarization, The Interferometric Measurement Equation.
Week 9: Radio Sky: Emission Mechanisms of Continuous Radiation, Synchrotron Radiation, Thermal and Non-thermal Radio Sources, Radio Galaxies, Pulsars and Time domain radio astronomy, Extra-galactic Sources, Gravitational Lensing, Faraday Rotation. Cosmology
Week 10: Spectral Lines: Spectral line Fundamentals, Dipole Transition Probabilities, The 21cm line of Neutral Hydrogen, The Zeeman Effect, Diffuse Interstellar gas, Galactic neutral hydrogen, Radio Recombination lines, Molecular Line emission
Week 11: Radio Wave Propagation Effects: i) Neutral Medium, High frequency radio observations and lower atmosphere (Troposphere), Water vapor radiometry, ii) Ionized Medium, Ionosphere, Scattering by Plasma irregularities, Low Frequency radio observations and upper atmosphere, Interplanetary medium, Interstellar Medium,
Week 12: Very Long Baseline Interferometry: VLBI System, Fringe fitting, Phase stability and atomic frequency standards, Astrometry and Geodesy

Books and references

1) Wilson, T. L., Rohlfs K. and Huttemeister, S., “Tools of Radio Astronomy”, 2013, Springer-Verlag, 6th Edition
2) Burke, B.F. and Graham-Smith, F.,”An Introduction to Radio Astronomy”, 2010, Cambridge, 3rd Edition
3) Thompson, A.R., Moran, J.M., Swenson, G.W. Jr., ”Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy”, 2017, Springer Open.
4) Christiansen, W. N. and Högbom, J.A.,” Radiotelescopes”, 1985, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press

Instructor bio

Prof. Abhirup Datta

IIT Indore
Prof. Abhirup Datta is currently an Associate Professor in Astronomy at IIT Indore (Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India). He is also Head of the Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering since March 2017. He is actively involved in research related to Extragalactic Universe and Cosmology in the global radio astronomy project of Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Prof. Datta joined IIT Indore in September, 2015 as an Assistant Professor in Astronomy. He has been actively involved in teaching and research in Astronomy and related fields. He has helped to develop the coursework for a new M.Sc. Astronomy (2018), M.S. (by research) in Space Sciences and Engineering (2021) and M. Tech. in Space Engineering (2021) programs at IIT Indore. His present research interests lie in Observational Cosmology, HI 21cm Cosmology, Clusters of Galaxies, Space Weather and Ionosphere: Using GNSS, Multi-wavelength observations of the Radio Deep-fields, Multi-messenger Astronomy, AstroStatistics, Machine Learning and Big Data; Sustainability Research. Previously, Prof.. Datta was a Senior Research Associate at Centre of Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado Boulder, USA. He was also a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the same Department since March, 2011. During this time he worked extensively on a NASA concept mission called DARE (Dark Ages Radio Explorer). He was also part of successful NASA funding proposals to study Galaxy Clusters in radio and X-ray wavelengths using Chandra X-ray Observatory, VLA (Very Large Array) and GMRT (Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope). Prof.. Abhirup Datta did his PhD from New Mexico Tech/NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) in Socorro, USA. His research interests are primarily in observational cosmology at low radio frequencies.Prof. Datta did his B.Sc. Physics (Hons.) from St. Xaviers College, Calcutta and his M.Sc. (Physics) from University of Pune (Dept. of Physics)

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: 29 October 2023 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Indore .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team


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