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

摘要

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.