Single dish polarimetry mini-workshop

On 7 September 2005 ATNF hosted a small half-day workshop on single-dish polarimetry. The workshop was designed to bring together researchers working on different aspects of single dish polarimetry in order to share their experiences with observing, calibration and analysis techniques. We were particularly motivated by the realisation that there are many distinct groups around the ATNF working with Parkes polarization data in a range of fields including pulsars, masers and continuum imaging. Polarimetry with a single dish involves a slightly different set of techniques to the familiar ones applied with an interferometer; although the experience of handling these data exists, it does not often cross the boundaries between scientific disciplines.

The workshop was a great success, with about 15 participants, including six speakers. The talks covered a wide range of topics with Jim Caswell and Rachel Deacon talking about observations of the polarization of OH masers, Simon Johnston telling us how polarization helps us understand pulsars, Ettore Carretti (Bologna) discussing continuum polarization imaging at 2.4 GHz for CMB foreground studies, Dave McConnell and Naomi McClure-Griffiths talking about continuum polarization imaging at 1.4 GHz for the Southern Galactic Plane Survey and Chris Phillips demonstrating the use of the new ASAP software for polarimetry.

The workshop was designed to be highly discussion oriented with short, 20-minute talks followed by 25 minutes for discussion after each talk. The format was very effective and the discussions were active and valuable. It was refreshing to see the similarity of techniques applied to the very disparate scientific fields. We also benefited greatly from the presence and input of a few technical experts. At the end of the day we concluded that single dish polarimetry isn't easy, but it's worth doing!

Naomi McClure-Griffiths
(Naomi.McClure-Griffiths@csiro.au)