Adaptive calibration of radio interferometer data

The problem of adaptive compensation for systematic error in radio interferometer data is considered. The analysis here applies generally only to multi-element arrays in which the correlations among all antenna pairs are observed. Given a set of assumptions on the analytic properties of the radio source brightness distribution, and given a mathematical or statistical model of the errors corrupting the data, an optimal estimate is to be made, in some well-defined sense, of the true source brightness distribution. According to a realistic error model, many measurements may have the same component of error; hence one might expect the problem of adaptive error compensation to be tractable, given a minimal set of assumptions. Attention is given to an error model, possible assumptions, an outline of concrete methods, and the implementation of the most convenient method.