1-D Interferometer in 3-D Space and Radon Transform

Abstract

Observations in three-dimensional space using an interferometer generally require a corresponding rank of the base vector system of the interferometric system. The paper considers one of the ways to solve such a problem using a 1D interferometer with a moving antenna. Due to its movement, it is possible to synthesize an interferometer of a higher rank, similar to aperture synthesis. Moving the moving antenna in the plane allows formation of a 2D interferometer. The obtained analytical expressions show that such an interferometer performs the Radon transform of the angular structure of the spatial image when observing sources far beyond the size of the interferometer base. In the quasi-monochromatic approximation, a comparison is made between the van Cittert-Zernike theorem, which is widely used in such problems, and the considered transformation. It is shown that the obtained conclusions agree well with each other, while the Radon transform better meets the problem and is free from a number of limitations.