2007/07/23 by J. F. Helmboldt, N. E. Kassim, A. S. Cohen +2 · 24 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Calibration #Electrical and Electromagnetic Research #Flux (metallurgy) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Low frequency #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Radio spectrum #Sky #Spectral line #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/521829
published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 174(2), 313-336 (Institute of Physics) · Accepted to ApJS
arxiv created 2007/07/23 · openalex publication_date 2008/01/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
As a service to the community, we have compiled radio frequency spectra from the literature for all sources within the VLA Low Frequency Sky Survey (VLSS) that are brighter than 15 Jy at 74 MHz. Over 160 references were used to maximize the amount of spectral data used in the compilation of the spectra, while also taking care to determine the corrections needed to put the flux densities from all reference on the same absolute flux density scale. With the new VLSS data, we are able to vastly improve on previous efforts to compile spectra of bright radio sources to frequencies below 100 MHz because (1) the VLSS flux densities are more reliable than those from some previous low-frequency surveys and (2) the VLSS covers a much larger area of the sky (δ > − 30°) than many other low-frequency surveys (e.g., the 8C survey). In this paper, we discuss how the spectra were constructed and how parameters quantifying the shapes of the spectra were derived. Both the spectra and the shape parameters are made available here to assist in the calibration of observations made with current and future low-frequency radio facilities.