Correction of the temperature effect in calibration of a solar radio telescope

Abstract

Abstract This work analyzes the annual fluctuation of the observation data of the Mingantu Solar radio Telescope (MST) in S, C and X bands. It is found that the data vary with local air temperature as the logarithmic attenuation of equipment increases with temperature and frequency. A simplified and effective calibration method is proposed, which is used to calibrate the MST data in 2018–2020, while the correction coefficients are calculated from data in 2018–2019. For S, C and X bands, the root mean square errors of one polarization are 2.7, 5.7 and 20 sfu, and the relative errors are 4%, 6% and 8% respectively. The calibration of MUSER and SBRS spectra is also performed. The relative errors of MUSER at 1700 MHz, SBRS at 2800 MHz, 3050 MHz and 3350 MHz are 8%, 8%, 11% and 10% respectively. We found that several factors may affect the calibration accuracy, especially at X-band. The method is expected to work for other radio telescopes with similar design.