TY - JOUR
T1 - The python sky model
T2 - Software for simulating the Galactic microwave sky
AU - Thorne, B.
AU - Dunkley, J.
AU - Alonso, D.
AU - Næss, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
BT acknowledges the support of an STFC studentship; JD and DA acknowledge the support of ERC grant 259505. DA acknowledges support from BIPAC. We acknowledge use of the WMAP public maps on LAMBDA, the Planck public maps on the Planck Legacy Archive, the HEALPIX software and analysis package (Górski et al. 2005), and the Planck Sky Model code (Delabrouille et al. 2013).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors.
PY - 2017/8/11
Y1 - 2017/8/11
N2 - We present a numerical code to simulate maps of Galactic emission in intensity and polarization at microwave frequencies, aiding in the design of cosmic microwave background experiments. This PYTHON code builds on existing efforts to simulate the sky by providing an easy-to-use interface and is based on publicly available data from the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) and Planck satellite missions. We simulate synchrotron, thermal dust, free-free and anomalous microwave emission over the whole sky, in addition to the cosmic microwave background, and include a set of alternative prescriptions for the frequency dependence of each component, for example, polarized dust with multiple temperatures and a decorrelation of the signals with frequency, which introduce complexity that is consistent with current data. We also present a new prescription for adding small-scale realizations of these components at resolutions greater than current all-sky measurements. The usefulness of the code is demonstrated by forecasting the impact of varying foreground complexity on the recovered tensor-to-scalar ratio for the LiteBIRD satellite.
AB - We present a numerical code to simulate maps of Galactic emission in intensity and polarization at microwave frequencies, aiding in the design of cosmic microwave background experiments. This PYTHON code builds on existing efforts to simulate the sky by providing an easy-to-use interface and is based on publicly available data from the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) and Planck satellite missions. We simulate synchrotron, thermal dust, free-free and anomalous microwave emission over the whole sky, in addition to the cosmic microwave background, and include a set of alternative prescriptions for the frequency dependence of each component, for example, polarized dust with multiple temperatures and a decorrelation of the signals with frequency, which introduce complexity that is consistent with current data. We also present a new prescription for adding small-scale realizations of these components at resolutions greater than current all-sky measurements. The usefulness of the code is demonstrated by forecasting the impact of varying foreground complexity on the recovered tensor-to-scalar ratio for the LiteBIRD satellite.
KW - Cosmic background radiation
KW - Cosmology: observations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041857956&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85041857956&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stx949
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stx949
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041857956
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 469
SP - 2821
EP - 2833
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 3
ER -