Non-coplanar sampling of the visibility function measured by interferometric arrays leads to difficulties in imaging wide-fields. Unlike the case for co-planar sampling or small fields of view, the relationship between sky brightness and the visibility is not a simple two-dimensional Fourier transform, and so the usual methods of image reconstruction cannot be applied. We describe and analyze some of the many schemes which have been advocated to overcome this problem. The most promising is based upon an observation by Clark that if the sky brightness is thought of as lying on a surface embedded in a three dimensional space, a Fourier relationship does hold.

Date Published: 1 November 1990
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 1351, Digital Image Synthesis and Inverse Optics, (1 November 1990); doi: 10.1117/12.23678

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1351:
Digital Image Synthesis and Inverse Optics
Arthur F. Gmitro; Paul S. Idell; Ivan J. LaHaie, Editor(s)