Atmospheric opacity correction in C-band at Irbene RT-16 radio telescope

Abstract

The method (Kraus (2007)) for correcting atmospheric opacity in the C-band was applied to the RT-16 radio telescope of the Irbene observatory. The method is based on the calculation of the noise temperature T0, which is almost independent of the environment and is determined by the characteristics of the receiver and radio telescope antenna. T0 is determined using sky dip observations. The atmospheric opacity in the zenith is calculated using T0. We have determined the time dependence of T0 over a long period of time. It is shown that the T0 error increases the error of the flux density by no more than 0.5%.