Imaging Simulations with CARMA-23
CARMA memo 27; BIMA memo 101, July 2004
M. C. H. Wright
Radio Astronomy laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720

We simulated imaging for the 23-antenna CARMA telescope in three compact
configurations using a model image of Saturn.  Simulated uv data sampled
by the heterogeneous array of 10.4, 6.1, and 3.5 m antennas were used to
make mosaic images.  Three different Maximum Entropy deconvolutions were
used.  The best image fidelity was obtained using a joint deconvolution
of the interferometer and single dish data.  Using the single dish
data as a default image, provides a total flux estimate and low spatial
frequencies unsampled by the interferometric mosaic. Both methods give
higher image fidelity than just using the interferometer data with a
total flux estimate.  We analyze two problems: i) sampling the short
spatial frequencies, ii) Nyquist sampling the large scale structure,
and show that the image fidelity is improved by a higher uv sampling
density. Using the interferometer spacings between 3.5 and 6.1 m sampled
by the 3.5 m antennas further improves the image fidelity  because the
interferometer observations provide better quality data for these short
spatial frequencies, than can be obtained from the joint deconvolution
with the 10.4 m single dish data.