CLEAN	Smear Fitted

Smear Fitting

Sharp resolution and optimum sensitivity at the same time.

Smear fitting is an image deconvolution technique for interferometry that I have developed as an alternative to CLEAN or Maximum Entropy. It fits a model made of up to several dozen components, usually elliptical gaussians, to the visibilities, and then broadens it to account for uncertainty in the measurements. Despite the broadening step it generally produces sharper resolution than CLEAN, while using the full sensitivity of natural weighting. The properties of the model let it avoid many of the problems of maximum entropy. (It can be thought of as a variation on maximum entropy, with a more data-driven basis for the model.) A comparision to CLEAN is on the right. Note that the smeared image has much finer resolution than the CLEAN beam (the cyan ring in the smear fitted image), and that the core is not fainter, it is simply sharper.

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Combined 4.8 (red) and 8.4 (blue) GHz VLA image

Last modified: Mon Jun 4 20:56:19 EDT 2007
Rob Reid,