This isn't quite a full-blown research project, but it could evolve into one if done correctly. I want a multi-panel browser view, with one panel being an input panel in which I can arrange and set the brightnesses of point sources in an astronomical scene or a sky patch, and then a few panels showing the real part, imaginary part, amplitude, and phase of the fourier transform of the scene. It should all run in the browser for speed and flexibility. Also, there could be panels in which you set down antennae, get baselines in the u–v plane (possibly as a function of wavelength and time as the Earth rotates), and show also the dirty-beam reconstructed scene (and maybe also the clean-beam reconstructed scene). This could be used to develop intuition about radio astronomy and the fourier transform. If done right it could also be used to plan observations (indeed, it could have an ALMA mode where it knows about the ALMA antennae). If done really right it could be used to aid in data analysis.
Some of the machinery for what you want might be in the ALMA observation support tool: http://almaost.jb.man.ac.uk/ - I believe this sits on CASA (the python-based ALMA analysis tool).
ReplyDeleteIt's set up for observers planning observations right now, but it looks like you could introduce graphical interfaces (e.g. like you say, create a sky-model in the browser) to achieve what you want...