Bandwidth smearing

Bandwidth smearing is a chromatic aberration of the reconstructed image of a celestial body observed by an astronomical interferometer that occurs because of the frequency bandwidth. In Fourier terms, the different frequencies of the bandwidth probe different spatial frequencies which results in a reconstruct map containing elongated radial features.

It is overcome by going to higher spectral resolutions or, in radioastronomy, by using different centres of phase for image reconstruction.

References

• Bridle, Alan H. and Schwab, Frederic R., Wide Field Imaging I: Bandwidth and Time-Average Smearing in Synthesis imaging in radio astronomy (1989), eds. Richard A. Perley, Frederic R. Schwab, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, vol. 6, ISBN 0-937707-23-6, p. 247.