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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/32314
Title: | Spectral index of the Galactic foreground emission in the 50-87 MHz range | Authors: | SPINELLI, MARTA BERNARDI, GIANNI Garsden, H. Greenhill, L. J. Fialkov, A. Dowell, J. Price, D. C. |
Issue Date: | 2021 | Journal: | MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY | Number: | 505 | Issue: | 2 | First Page: | 1575 | Abstract: | Total-power radiometry with individual meter-wave antennas is a potentially effective way to study the Cosmic Dawn (z ~ 20) through measurement of the sky brightness arising from the 21 cm transition of neutral hydrogen, provided this can be disentangled from much stronger Galactic and extra-galactic foregrounds. In the process, measured spectra of integrated sky brightness temperature can be used to quantify the foreground emission properties. In this work, we analyse a subset of data from the Large-aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Age (LEDA) in the 50-87 MHz range and constrain the foreground spectral index β in the northern sky visible from mid-latitudes. We focus on two zenith-directed LEDA radiometers and study how estimates of β vary with local sidereal time (LST). We correct for the effect of gain pattern chromaticity and compare estimated absolute temperatures with simulations. We select a reference data set consisting of 14 d of observations in optimal conditions. Using this data set, we find, for one radiometer, that β varies from -2.55 at LST <6 h to a steeper -2.58 at LST ~13 h, consistently with sky models and previous southern sky measurements. In the 13 - 24 h LST range, however, we find that β varies between -2.55 and -2.61 (data scatter ~0.01). We observe a similar β versus LST trend for the second radiometer, although with slightly smaller |β| over the 24 h, in the -2.46 < β < -2.43 range (data scatter ~ 0.02). Combining all data gathered during the extended campaign between mid-2018 and mid-2019, and focusing on the LST = 9-12.5 h range, we infer good instrument stability and find -2.56 < β < -2.50 with 0.09 < Δβ < 0.12. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/32314 | URL: | https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/505/2/1575/6276736?login=true http://arxiv.org/abs/2011.03994v2 |
ISSN: | 0035-8711 | DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stab1363 | Bibcode ADS: | 2021MNRAS.505.1575S | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
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spinelli21.pdf | Pdf editoriale | 6.34 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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