Spectral Line Confusion in SAFARI Surveys (work in progress)

Cardiff University, School of Physics & Astronomy, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK

Abstract

Source confusion occurs when sources are clustered to the order of the telescope beam size on the sky, and determines the useful depth to which to take large-area extragalactic surveys (cf. discussion in Raymond et al. these proceedings). Line, or spectral confusion occurs when multiple sources are observed by a spectrometer in a single telescope beam: the spectra from two or more ob jects are effectively scrambled.

In this poster we present the preliminary results of an investigation into how well redshifts can be estimated from deep spectroscopic surveys with SAFARI-type observations in which more than one source is observed in a single, spatial element.