StarWatch 3.0: Visualizing Wave Patterns of Phased Array Radio Telescopes

Abstract

We extend our system for radio astronomical monitoring by a module for numerical modeling of real antennas, based on the laws of wave optics. We use far field approximation, suitable for phased array radio telescopes, searching deep space signals. We have implemented the main computation on GPU, achieving acceleration factor 52 and providing real time performance of the module. Visualization of the resulting wave patterns helps to separate true deep space signals from the near Earth satellite radio interference. In particular, we model in detail a scenario of a satellite signal coming through the side lobe of SETI ATA-42 telescope. Such signals can be responsible for the false alarms in monitoring procedures, used in searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. We also analyze a scenario of searching pulsar signals with BSA/LPI radio telescope and their separation from background radio interference.