A METHOD FOR ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF SCIN TILLATING RADIO-SOURCES

A method for automated analysis of data from a survey of scintillating radio sources to be obtained using the Large Phased Array of the Lebe dev Physical Institute has been developed. Difference and median filte rs are used to remove effects interfering with the detection of scinti llating sources. The parameters for these filters are chosen so as to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio, which is very important when searc hing for extremely weak scintillating sources. Model calculations are used to give the probability of missing a signal as a function of sign al-to-noise ratio for a given acceptable probability of false detectio n of 0.001. The analysis method presented will make it possible to obt ain a scintillating source survey complete to radio sources having sci ntillation dispersions equal to the noise dispersion, with the expecte d number of false detections being one in 1000. Estimates of the error s of the measured coordinates of the scintillating radio sources and o f the scintillation dispersions as functions of the signal-to-noise ra tio are obtained.