Finding Compact Sources in the VLA Sky Survey
Abstract
The VLA Sky Survey (VLASS) is a three epoch radio wavelength survey which covers over 33,000 deg2 of the sky as visible from the Very Large Array in New Mexico, USA. At a resolution of 2.5 arcseconds and 120 microJansky RMS sensitivity per epoch, the VLASS is expected to locate around five million sources. We have initiated a project to identify candidate radio pulsars from the VLASS images for targeted follow up observations. To do so, we require a compact source catalog with minimal false positive detections that simultaneously does not miss out on real sources. We are testing the performance of various source finding tools to optimize such a catalog. In particular, Aegean Source Finder and PyBDSF were used to create catalogs for sample VLASS Quicklook images, which were analyzed for accuracy and completeness. Although more testing is required, our preliminary analysis shows that PyBDSF has a lower false positive detection rate and excels in differentiating sources within clusters, while Aegean has better performance in locating point sources. After further testing of other tools, we will construct a compact source catalog and use multiwavelength matches to rank pulsar candidates for follow up.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23315306R