L-BASS: a project to produce an absolutely calibrated 1.4 GHz sky map, I -- Scientific rationale and system overview

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zerafa, D. P., Wilkinson, P. N., Radcliffe, C. J., Leahy, J. P., Browne, I. W. A., Black, P. J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zerafa, D. P.
Wilkinson, P. N.
Radcliffe, C. J.
Leahy, J. P.
Browne, I. W. A.
Black, P. J.
author_facet Zerafa, D. P.
Wilkinson, P. N.
Radcliffe, C. J.
Leahy, J. P.
Browne, I. W. A.
Black, P. J.
contents L-BASS is an instrument designed to produce an absolutely calibrated map of the sky at a wavelength of 21 cm (L-band) with a radiometric accuracy of less than or equal to 0.1 K and with an angular resolution of 23 degrees. The prime motivations are to improve the temperature calibration of higher resolution maps and to investigate the steep spectrum radio background proposed by the ARCADE 2 team. The instrument consists of a pair of conical horn antennas which can scan independently in elevation; each antenna produces a circularly polarized output. The difference in signals from the antennas is measured with a continuous-comparison receiver connected to a digital spectrometer sampling the signal from 1400 MHz to 1425 MHz within the protected radio astronomy band. We describe the astrophysical motivation for the project, the design requirements and how these will be attained.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_08465
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle L-BASS: a project to produce an absolutely calibrated 1.4 GHz sky map, I -- Scientific rationale and system overview
Zerafa, D. P.
Wilkinson, P. N.
Radcliffe, C. J.
Leahy, J. P.
Browne, I. W. A.
Black, P. J.
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
L-BASS is an instrument designed to produce an absolutely calibrated map of the sky at a wavelength of 21 cm (L-band) with a radiometric accuracy of less than or equal to 0.1 K and with an angular resolution of 23 degrees. The prime motivations are to improve the temperature calibration of higher resolution maps and to investigate the steep spectrum radio background proposed by the ARCADE 2 team. The instrument consists of a pair of conical horn antennas which can scan independently in elevation; each antenna produces a circularly polarized output. The difference in signals from the antennas is measured with a continuous-comparison receiver connected to a digital spectrometer sampling the signal from 1400 MHz to 1425 MHz within the protected radio astronomy band. We describe the astrophysical motivation for the project, the design requirements and how these will be attained.
title L-BASS: a project to produce an absolutely calibrated 1.4 GHz sky map, I -- Scientific rationale and system overview
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08465