SYMBA: An end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline: Simulating Event Horizon Telescope observations of M 87

F Roelofs; Michael Janssen; Iniyan Natarajan; R. P Deane; Jordy Davelaar; Héctor Olivares; Oliver Porth; S.N Paine; K. L Bouman; R. P. J Tilanus; I van Bemmel; H.D Falcke; Kazunori Akiyama; Antxon Alberdi; Walter Alef; K Asada; R Azulay; A. K Baczko; David Ball; Mislav Baloković; John Barrett; Dan Bintley; Lindy Blackburn; W Boland; G. C Bower; M Bremer; C. D Brinkerink; Roger Brissenden; Silke Britzen; Avery E Broderick; D Broguière; Thomas Bronzwaer; Do Young Byun; J. E Carlstrom; A Chael; Chi Kwan Chan; S Chatterjee; Koushik Chatterjee; Ming Tang Chen; Yongjun Chen; I Cho; Pierre Christian; John Conway; James M Cordes; G Crew; Yuzhu Cui; Mariafelicia De Laurentis; Jessica Dempsey; Gregory Desvignes; Jason Dexter; S Doeleman; Ralph P Eatough; V Fish; E Fomalont; R Fraga-Encinas; P Friberg; Christian M Fromm; J. L Gomez; Peter Galison; Charles F Gammie; Roberto Garcia; Olivier Gentaz; Boris Georgiev; C Goddi; R Gold; Minfeng Gu; M Gurwell; K Hada; Michael H Hecht; R Hesper; Luis C Ho; P Ho; M Honma; C.L Huang; Lei Huang; D Hughes; S Ikeda; Makoto Inoue; S Issaoun; David J James; Buell T Jannuzi; Britton Jeter; Wu Jiang; Michael D Johnson; S.G Jorstad; Taehyun Jung; Mansour Karami; R Karuppusamy; Tomohisa Kawashima; G Keating; M. M Kettenis; Junhan Kim; Jongsoo Kim; Jae-Young Kim; M Kino; Jun Yi Koay; Patrick M Koch; Shoko Koyama; M Kramer; C Kramer; T.P Krichbaum; Cheng Yu Kuo; Tod R Lauer; Sang Sung Lee; Yan Rong Li; Zhiyuan Li; Michael Lindqvist; R Lico; Kuo Liu; Elisabetta Liuzzo; Wen-Ping Lo; A. P Lobanov; L Loinard; Colin Lonsdale; R.S Lu; N. R Macdonald; Jirong Mao; S Markoff; D. P Marrone; A Marscher; Ivan Marti-Vidal; S Matsushita; L.D Matthews; Lia Medeiros; K Menten; Yosuke Mizuno; Izumi Mizuno; James M Moran; Kotaro Moriyama; M Mościbrodzka; C Müller; H Nagai; N. M Nagar; Masanori Nakamura; Ramesh Narayan; Gopal Narayanan; R Neri; Chunchong Ni; A Noutsos; Hiroki Okino; G.N Ortiz-León; Tomoaki Oyama; Feryal Özel; Daniel C.M Palumbo; N Patel; U. L Pen; Dominic W Pesce; Vincent Piétu; Richard L Plambeck; Aleksandar PopStefanija; Ben Prather; Jorge A Preciado-López; D Psaltis; Hung-Yi Pu; Venkatessh Ramakrishnan; R Rao; M.G Rawlings; Alexander W Raymond; Luciano Rezzolla; Bart Ripperda; A Rogers; Eduardo Ros; Mel Rose; Arash Roshanineshat; H Rottmann; A Roy; C Ruszczyk; Benjamin R Ryan; Kazi L.J Rygl; S Sanchez; David Sánchez-Arguelles; Mahito Sasada; T Savolainen; F. P Schloerb; K Schuster; Lijing Shao; Zhi Qiang Shen; Des Small; B Won Sohn; J SooHoo; Fumie Tazaki; Paul Tiede; M Titus; Kenji Toma; Pablo Torne; E Traianou; Tyler Trent; S Trippe; Shuichiro Tsuda; H. J van Langevelde; Daniel R van Rossum; Jan Wagner; John Wardle; J Weintroub; Norbert Wex; Robert Wharton; M Wielgus; George N Wong; Qingwen Wu; André Young; K Young; Ziri Younsi; Feng Yuan; Ye-Fei Yuan; A.J Zensus; G. Y Zhao; Shan-Shan Zhao; Ziyan Zhu; The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration; Event Horizon Telescope Collaborat

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201936622

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SYMBA: An end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline: Simulating Event Horizon Telescope observations of M 87

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

SYMBA: An end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline: Simulating Event Horizon Telescope observations of M 87

F Roelofs, Michael Janssen, Iniyan Natarajan, R. P Deane, Jordy Davelaar, Héctor Olivares, Oliver Porth, S.N Paine, K. L Bouman, R. P. J Tilanus, …

Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin), Vol.636, p.A5

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936622

Abstract

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Atmospheric effects

Black hole physics

Computer Vision and Robotics (Autonomous Systems)

Galaxies: nuclei

Techniques: high angular resolution

Techniques: interferometric

Astronomy

Astrophysics

Computer Modeling

Cosmology

Geophysics

Telescopes

Context. Realistic synthetic observations of theoretical source models are essential for our understanding of real observational data. In using synthetic data, one can verify the extent to which source parameters can be recovered and evaluate how various data corruption effects can be calibrated. These studies are the most important when proposing observations of new sources, in the characterization of the capabilities of new or upgraded instruments, and when verifying model-based theoretical predictions in a direct comparison with observational data. Aims. We present the SYnthetic Measurement creator for long Baseline Arrays (SYMBA), a novel synthetic data generation pipeline for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations. SYMBA takes into account several realistic atmospheric, instrumental, and calibration effects. Methods. We used SYMBA to create synthetic observations for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a millimetre VLBI array, which has recently captured the first image of a black hole shadow. After testing SYMBA with simple source and corruption models, we study the importance of including all corruption and calibration effects, compared to the addition of thermal noise only. Using synthetic data based on two example general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) model images of M 87, we performed case studies to assess the image quality that can be obtained with the current and future EHT array for different weather conditions. Results. Our synthetic observations show that the effects of atmospheric and instrumental corruptions on the measured visibilities are significant. Despite these effects, we demonstrate how the overall structure of our GRMHD source models can be recovered robustly with the EHT2017 array after performing calibration steps, which include fringe fitting, a priori amplitude and network calibration, and self-calibration. With the planned addition of new stations to the EHT array in the coming years, images could be reconstructed with higher angular resolution and dynamic range. In our case study, these improvements allowed for a distinction between a thermal and a non-thermal GRMHD model based on salient features in reconstructed images.

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Title: SYMBA: An end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline
Creators: F Roelofs - Radboud University, Netherlands
Michael Janssen - Radboud University, Netherlands
Iniyan Natarajan - Rhodes University, South Africa
R. P Deane - Rhodes University, South Africa
Jordy Davelaar - Radboud University, Netherlands
Héctor Olivares - Radboud University, Netherlands
Oliver Porth - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
S.N Paine - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
K. L Bouman - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
R. P. J Tilanus - Radboud University, Netherlands
I van Bemmel - Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE), Netherlands
H.D Falcke - Radboud University, Netherlands
Kazunori Akiyama - Harvard University, USA
Antxon Alberdi - Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA), Spain
Walter Alef - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
K Asada - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
R Azulay - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
A. K Baczko - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
David Ball - University of Arizona, United States
Mislav Baloković - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
John Barrett - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Dan Bintley - East Asian Observatory, United States
Lindy Blackburn - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
W Boland - Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie (NOVA), Netherlands
G. C Bower - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
M Bremer - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
C. D Brinkerink - Radboud University, Netherlands
Roger Brissenden - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Silke Britzen - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Avery E Broderick - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada
D Broguière - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
Thomas Bronzwaer - Radboud University, Netherlands
Do Young Byun - Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, South Korea
J. E Carlstrom - University of Chicago, United States
A Chael - Princeton University, United States
Chi Kwan Chan - University of Arizona, United States
S Chatterjee - Cornell University, USA
Koushik Chatterjee - Florence
Ming Tang Chen - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
Yongjun Chen - Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
I Cho - Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, South Korea
Pierre Christian - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
John Conway - Chalmers University of Technology
James M Cordes - Cornell University, USA
G Crew - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Yuzhu Cui - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
Mariafelicia De Laurentis - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Jessica Dempsey - East Asian Observatory, United States
Gregory Desvignes - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Jason Dexter - Harvard University, USA
S Doeleman - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Ralph P Eatough - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
V Fish - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
E Fomalont - National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA
R Fraga-Encinas - Radboud University, Netherlands
P Friberg - East Asian Observatory, United States
Christian M Fromm - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
J. L Gomez - Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA), Spain
Peter Galison - Harvard University, USA
Charles F Gammie - University of Illinois, USA
Roberto Garcia - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
Olivier Gentaz - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
Boris Georgiev - University of Waterloo, Canada
C Goddi - Radboud University, Netherlands
R Gold - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Minfeng Gu - Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
M Gurwell - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
K Hada - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
Michael H Hecht - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
R Hesper - University of Groningen, Netherlands
Luis C Ho - Beijing University of Technology, China
P Ho - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
M Honma - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
C.L Huang - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
Lei Huang - Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
D Hughes - National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), Mexico
S Ikeda - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
Makoto Inoue - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
S Issaoun - Radboud University, Netherlands
David J James - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Buell T Jannuzi - University of Arizona, United States
Britton Jeter - University of Waterloo, Canada
Wu Jiang - Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Michael D Johnson - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
S.G Jorstad - Boston University, United States
Taehyun Jung - Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, South Korea
Mansour Karami - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada
R Karuppusamy - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Tomohisa Kawashima - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
G Keating - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
M. M Kettenis - Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE), Netherlands
Junhan Kim - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Jongsoo Kim - California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA
Jae-Young Kim - Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
M Kino - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
Jun Yi Koay - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
Patrick M Koch - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
Shoko Koyama - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
M Kramer - Brandeis University, Library
C Kramer - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
T.P Krichbaum - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Cheng Yu Kuo - National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan
Tod R Lauer - National Optical Astronomy Observatory, United States
Sang Sung Lee - Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
Yan Rong Li - Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Zhiyuan Li - Nanjing University, China
Michael Lindqvist - Chalmers University of Technology
R Lico - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Kuo Liu - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Elisabetta Liuzzo - Istituto di Radioastronomia, Italy
Wen-Ping Lo - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
A. P Lobanov - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
L Loinard - Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico
Colin Lonsdale - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
R.S Lu - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
N. R Macdonald - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Jirong Mao - Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
S Markoff - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
D. P Marrone - University of Arizona, United States
A Marscher - Boston University, United States
Ivan Marti-Vidal - Universitat de Valencia, Spain
S Matsushita - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
L.D Matthews - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Lia Medeiros - University of Arizona, United States
K Menten - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Yosuke Mizuno - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Izumi Mizuno - East Asian Observatory, United States
James M Moran - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Kotaro Moriyama - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
M Mościbrodzka - Radboud University, Netherlands
C Müller - Radboud University, Netherlands
H Nagai - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
N. M Nagar - University of Concepcion, Chile
Masanori Nakamura - Academia Sinica Taiwan, Taiwan
Ramesh Narayan - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Gopal Narayanan - University of Massachusetts, United States
R Neri - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
Chunchong Ni - University of Waterloo, Canada
A Noutsos - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Hiroki Okino - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
G.N Ortiz-León - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Tomoaki Oyama - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
Feryal Özel - University of Arizona, United States
Daniel C.M Palumbo - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
N Patel - Boston University
U. L Pen - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada
Dominic W Pesce - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Vincent Piétu - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
Richard L Plambeck - University of California, USA
Aleksandar PopStefanija - University of Massachusetts, United States
Ben Prather - University of Illinois, USA
Jorge A Preciado-López - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada
D Psaltis - University of Arizona, United States
Hung-Yi Pu - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada
Venkatessh Ramakrishnan - University of Concepcion, Chile
R Rao - Academia Sinica
M.G Rawlings - East Asian Observatory, United States
Alexander W Raymond - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Luciano Rezzolla - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Bart Ripperda - Princeton University, United States
A Rogers - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Eduardo Ros - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Mel Rose - University of Arizona, United States
Arash Roshanineshat - University of Arizona, United States
H Rottmann - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
A Roy - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
C Ruszczyk - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Benjamin R Ryan - Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
Kazi L.J Rygl - Istituto di Radioastronomia, Italy
S Sanchez - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
David Sánchez-Arguelles - The Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM), Japan
Mahito Sasada - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
T Savolainen - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
F. P Schloerb - University of Massachusetts, United States
K Schuster - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), France
Lijing Shao - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Zhi Qiang Shen - Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Des Small - Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE), Netherlands
B Won Sohn - Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
J SooHoo - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Fumie Tazaki - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
Paul Tiede - University of Waterloo, Canada
M Titus - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Kenji Toma - Tohoku University, Japan
Pablo Torne - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
E Traianou - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Tyler Trent - University of Arizona, United States
S Trippe - Seoul National University, South Korea
Shuichiro Tsuda - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan
H. J van Langevelde - Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE), Netherlands
Daniel R van Rossum - Radboud University, Netherlands
Jan Wagner - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
John Wardle - Brandeis University, Martin A. Fisher School of Physics
J Weintroub - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Norbert Wex - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
Robert Wharton - Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG), Germany
M Wielgus - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
George N Wong - University of Illinois, USA
Qingwen Wu - Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
André Young - Radboud University, Netherlands
K Young - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
Ziri Younsi - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Feng Yuan - Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Ye-Fei Yuan - University of Science and Technology of China, China
A.J Zensus - Max Planck Society
G. Y Zhao - Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, South Korea
Shan-Shan Zhao - Radboud University, Netherlands
Ziyan Zhu - Harvard University, USA
The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (Author)
Event Horizon Telescope Collaborat
Publication Details: Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin), Vol.636, p.A5
Identifiers: 9924117859801921
Academic Unit: Martin A. Fisher School of Physics
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

SYMBA: An end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline: Simulating Event Horizon Telescope observations of M 87

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