Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2013 Paper 2 Section A 1 Solution 2026-10-20
The wavelength is . The longest interferometric baseline measures the finest angular structure and the shortest-baseline angular scale describes the coarsest:These are order-of-magnitude scales, not sharp cutoffs. A commonly used maximum-recoverable-scale convention is , giving about ; reconstruction also depends on baseline coverage and source structure. The individual antenna's primary beam is a separate field-of-view limit.[ref]
ALMA Basics by National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “Interferometry”, “Field of view”, and “Imaging of extended structures”