Editor/Author Correspondence

Section Editor
2014-02-10 10:58 PM / Subject: [RAA] MS 1676: Decision on your article for Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Ref: RAA/MS 1676
Dear Dr. Mo Zhang,
MS #: 1676
Title: Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer arrays in Earth orbit and on the lunar surface
Author(s): Mo Zhang, Mao-Hai Huang, Yi-Hua Yan
Please find the referee’s report on your above submission to Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Sincerely,
Prof. Xuelei Chen

Scientific Editor
Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Section Editor
2014-06-21 12:13 AM / Subject: [RAA] MS 1676: Your article has been accepted for Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Ref: RAA/MS 1676
Dear Mo Zhang,
MS #:1676
Title: Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer in the Earth orbit and on the lunar surface
Author(s): Mo Zhang, Mao-Hai Huang, Yi-Hua Yan
We are pleased to inform you that the above article has been accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Sincerely Yours,
Prof. Xuelei Chen
National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing
Phone 86-10-64841655

Scientific Editor
Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
------
Reviewer A:
This paper presents an interesting comparison between Earth orbit systems and lunar surface systems.
The simulations in the paper, although relatively unsophisticated, are acceptable and should be published after considering the following comments.
This is only a small part of a complete system design and neglects many practical limitations for putting such a system in place, indeed many other practical arguments shall dominate the system selection. While at this stage, this concept study is still helpful for the overall system design.
There are a few concerns:
(1) a major concern : the required data rate for the system cannot be easily accommodated by regulatory bandwidth allocations. Downlink spectrum is very limited and fully used. This is a definite disadvantage.
Indeed, data transmission is very limited and requires an orbiting station for data relay. And then there is also the data downlink issue.
The author need expand the discussion a little more on this issue.
(2) minor concerns — these issues should be emphasized in a certain level:
The Earth orbit system simulates the advantages of a three satellite system with different orbits, a concept that has already been proposed for space vlbi systems. From a practical operational point of view, such a system requires that the antennas are always parallel to the Earth surface and require constant satellite repositioning. How does this affect the (u,v) coverage?
The backside lunar surface simulation does provide a more attractive uv-coverage and better RF-environment for shorter baselines.
There is the even larger issue of deployment of an antenna array. Furthermore, lunar orbits and landings are very costly.
There are some language problems, I believe Language Editor will help to polish the manuscript.
Author
2014-04-17 02:34 PM / Subject: [RAA][revised version submitted] Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer arrays
Mr. Prof. Chen,
We have just submitted the revised version of our paper:
"Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer arrays in Earth orbit and on the Lunar surface",
We are looking forward to your positive response.
Mo Zhang
______
Section Editor
2014-05-16 09:36 AM / Subject: [RAA] MS 1676: Decision on your article for Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Ref: RAA/MS 1676
Dear Dr. Mo Zhang,
MS #: 1676
Title: Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer arrays in Earth orbit and on the lunar surface
Author(s): Mo Zhang, Mao-Hai Huang, Yi-Hua Yan
Please find the referee’s report on your above submission to Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. I suggest you take fully referee's report into account in your revised version. When submitting the revised version of your manuscript, please include a detailed cover letter containing point-by-point responses to referee's report and there should also be a copy of the revised manuscript with changes marked in red or bold face to allow the Reviewers to examine the content.
If the referee’s report is not enclosed in this email, you can find the referee report on the website of Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics located at http://raa.raa-journal.org.
Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics has adopted a policy that manuscript files become inactive, and are considered to have been withdrawn, six months after the most recent referee’s report goes to the authors, provided that a revised version has not been received since then.
If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this email.
Sincerely,
Prof. Xuelei Chen
National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing
Phone 86-10-64841655

Scientific Editor
Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
______
Section Editor
2014-05-16 12:03 PM / Subject: [RAA] MS 1676: Decision on your article for Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Ref: RAA/MS 1676
Dear Dr. Mo Zhang,
MS #: 1676
Title: Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer arrays in Earth orbit and on the lunar surface
Author(s): Mo Zhang, Mao-Hai Huang, Yi-Hua Yan
Please find the referee’s report on your above submission to Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Sincerely,
Prof. Xuelei Chen
National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing
Phone 86-10-64841655
------
Reviewer A:
General comments:
• the (u,v) coverages using two antennas with the same circular orbit (Table 2 and Figures 2-4) are confusing => what is the benefit of using two antennas of same orbital parameters? In Section 4, the array sensitivity of 10 antennas is also estimated, what is the distribution of these 10 antennas?
• The Earth orbit D is 1.4x10^7 m in the calculations in Table 8. It is different from the (u,v) coverage simulations in Table 2.
Title: interferometer arrays => interferometer
these two words repeat
Abstract:
Line 2 (L2): (ULW) -> remove
L3: Chang’e -> Chang’E
L4: find -> identify
Introduction:
L1: range -> spectrum window
L2: above -> longer than
study -> emphasize
L4: such as Earth’s ionosphere -> from the ionosphere of the Earth
L5: interferences -> radio frequency interferences (RFIs)
obtained -> conducted
L6: space -> the space
in Earth orbit -> in the Earth orbit
L6-L7: this sentence reads vague “Antennas deployed … (Jester & Falcke 2009)”
… are able to receive … below 10MHz, … limited by … cutoff frequency of … 20-30kHz
L8: space interferometry -> space interferometer
L9: Earth -> the Earth
same for other places
2nd paragraph
L3: Observing -> Observations of … require
Page 2
1st paragraph
L1: and therefore -> therefore long baselines are necessary
while studying -> while studies of
L2: shorter baselines are essential
L3: monitor -> monitoring
2nd paragraph
L4: Engineering factors -> Engineering factors to be considered
L9: Earths -> the Earth’s
3rd paragraph
L8: and frequency -> what “frequency”?
Table 1:
angular resolution : corresponding to which observing frequency and what baseline length?
the 3rd and 4th paragraphs are somewhat repeating
Page 3
L3: pointing in -> pointing to
observation -> observations
L4: eclipsed -> blocked
Table 2
t0 : antenna 2 has 20km lag -> why not switch to ‘time lag’ ?
duty cycle: unit?
Section 2.2
L1: Figure 1,2 -> Figures 1, 2
(u,v) coverage -> (u,v) coverages
L2: right panels -> right hand panels
Section 2.3
L2: data size -> data volume
the calculations give a data rate of 5MB/s = 40Mbps
Page 5
L1: please give the full link or the reference paper of the SVOM project
L2: 38 Mbps -> of the SVOM is 38 Mbps
L3: ground station -> ground tracking station
Section 2.4
P1 L1: simulation -> simulations
P2 L2: multiple antennas in different orbits will increase the sensitivity and (u,v) coverage, rather than reduce.
P2 L3: simulation -> simulations
Last line of Page 5: do you mean “the two signal … different times due to reflection of the signal in the lunar regolith (Fig. 4)”?
Annotation of Table 5: not considering -> without considering
1st paragraph of Section 3.2:
Figure 5 and 6 -> Figures
L3: the beam DM when considering the effect of the lunar regolith is smaller than that when it is not -> the beam DM is smaller when the effect of the lunar regolith is taken into account.
Section 3.3
L2: Change-1 -> Chang’E-1
L3: antennas on near side or the Moon : it is NOT desirable because of the RFI from the Earth.
The antenna array on the Moon surface need an additional data relay satellite
In Table 7, the flux density is estimated for the array of 3—10 antennas
why were the (u,v) coverages only plotted with two antennas?
Page 9
P1 L3: the Tsys power law estimate — it is better to give a reference paper to replace the LWA webpage
P2 L8: galactic -> Galactic
P2: the discussion of brightness temperature of point sources and of extended sources should be separated
P4 L2: Take -> Taking
Author
2014-06-09 09:58 AM / Subject: Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer in the Earth orbit and on the lunar surface
Dear Prof. Chen,
We have just submitted the newly revised version of our paper:
"Simulation of Ultra-Long Wavelength interferometer in the Earth orbit and on the Lunar surface",
We are looking forward to your positive response.
Mo Zhang
______