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Incoming links: Joan Wrobel
Joan Wrobel Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Joan Wrobel explains the sensitivity of radio interferometers through the relation between source signal and instrumental noise. Her 2004 synthesis-imaging lecture derives the system-equivalent flux density from antenna collecting area, efficiency and system temperature.
The lecture then distinguishes the noise of a single baseline measurement from the sensitivity of a reconstructed image. Tracking those definitions matters when comparing observing proposals or uncertainty estimates: a signal quoted per synthesized beam is not the same quantity as a baseline's flux-density noise.[ref]
Sensitivity by Joan Wrobel. Slides 3–12 and 19–20: antenna performance, baseline sensitivity and synthesis-image sensitivity