Simulation of a Zenith-Field Sky Survey on RATAN-600

Abstract

In this paper we simulate a deep multi-frequency zenith-field sky survey on RATAN-600 (the RZF survey). In our simulations we use the 1.4-GHz sky images obtained in the NVSS survey. We convolved NVSS images with the two-dimensional power beam pattern of RATAN-600 and obtain simulated 24-hour scans of sky transits at all wavelengths of the RZF survey. For the 7.6-cm wavelength we analyze the effect of the image area size on the results of the simulation. We estimate the accuracy of the determination of source fluxes on simulated scans and derive the distributions of the spectral indices of the sources. We use the simulated scans to clean real records of the RZF survey at 7.6 cm. The standard error of the residual noise at this wavelength is about 1 mJy.