A test of Radio Interferometry by Lunar reflection

Abstract

AbstractWe discuss the use of the moon as a passive reflector for radio interferometry experiments with baselines on the order of the radius of the orbit of the moon. Because of the extreme loss in the lunar interferometer path, only exceptionally strong point sources are candidates for this kind of interferometry. As the moon is far from an ideal reflector due to the irregular surface, the data processing necessary to optimize the fringe detectability is rather complicated. What we present here is a very brief summary of a paper describing the lunar interferometer in the Astrophysical Journal (Hagfors, Phillips and Belkora, 1990) and an experiment currently underway at Arecibo to test the lunar interferometer using Jupiter’s strong bursts at 25 MHz as a source. All references pertaining to the lunar interferometer are to be found in the Astrophysical Journal paper; this summary includes references concerning the test of the interferometer at Arecibo.