Precision CMB measurements with long-duration stratospheric balloons: activities in the Arctic

Bernardis, P. de; Masi, S.

doi:10.1017/s1743921312016894

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Such a long duration flight in the winter, while being appealing from the scientific point of view, is very demanding in terms of power system and thermal balance. A series of technological test flights has been carried out over the years, as reported in [50][51][52][53][54]. All the LSPE-SWIPE parts are designed to cope with temperatures as low as −90 °C, except the battery pack and part of the electronics, which are contained in a thermally insulated box.…”

Section: Jcap08(2021)008mentioning

confidence: 99%

The large scale polarization explorer (LSPE) for CMB measurements: performance forecast

Addamo

Ade

Baccigalupi

et al. 2021

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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The measurement of the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is one of the current frontiers in cosmology. In particular, the detection of the primordial divergence-free component of the polarization field, the B-mode, could reveal the presence of gravitational waves in the early Universe. The detection of such a component is at the moment the most promising technique to probe the inflationary theory describing the very early evolution of the Universe. We present the updated performance forecast of the Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE), a program dedicated to the measurement of the CMB polarization. LSPE is composed of two instruments: LSPE-Strip, a radiometer-based telescope on the ground in Tenerife-Teide observatory, and LSPE-SWIPE (Short-Wavelength Instrument for the Polarization Explorer) a bolometer-based instrument designed to fly on a winter arctic stratospheric long-duration balloon. The program is among the few dedicated to observation of the Northern Hemisphere, while most of the international effort is focused into ground-based observation in the Southern Hemisphere. Measurements are currently scheduled in Winter 2022/23 for LSPE-SWIPE, with a flight duration up to 15 days, and in Summer 2022 with two years observations for LSPE-Strip. We describe the main features of the two instruments, identifying the most critical aspects of the design, in terms of impact on the performance forecast. We estimate the expected sensitivity of each instrument and propagate their combined observing power to the sensitivity to cosmological parameters, including the effect of scanning strategy, component separation, residual foregrounds and partial sky coverage. We also set requirements on the control of the most critical systematic effects and describe techniques to mitigate their impact. LSPE will reach a sensitivity in tensor-to-scalar ratio of σ r < 0.01, set an upper limit r < 0.015 at 95% confidence level, and improve constraints on other cosmological parameters.

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Section: Jcap08(2021)008mentioning

confidence: 99%

The large scale polarization explorer (LSPE) for CMB measurements: performance forecast

Addamo

Ade

Baccigalupi

et al. 2021

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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show abstract

“…Such a long duration flight in the winter, while being appealing from the scientific point of view, is very demanding in terms of power system and thermal balance. A series of technological test flights has been carried out over the years, as reported in [28][29][30][31][32][33]. All the LSPE-SWIPE parts are designed to cope with temperatures as low as −90 • C, except the battery packs and part of the electronics, which are contained in a thermally insulated box.…”

Section: Winter Polar Balloon Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

The large scale polarization explorer (LSPE) for CMB measurements: performance forecast

Addamo,

Ade,

Baccigalupi

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The measurement of the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is one of the current frontiers in cosmology. In particular, the detection of the primordial divergence-free component of the polarization field, the B-mode component, could reveal the presence of gravitational waves in the early Universe. The detection of such component is at the moment the most promising technique to probe the inflationary theory describing the very early evolution of the Universe. We present the updated performance forecast of the Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE), a program dedicated to the measurement of the CMB polarization. LSPE is composed of two instruments: LSPE-Strip, a radiometer-based telescope on the ground in Tenerife, and LSPE-SWIPE (Short-Wavelength Instrument for the Polarization Explorer) a bolometer-based instrument designed to fly on a winter arctic stratospheric long-duration balloon. The program is among the few dedicated to observation of the Northern Hemisphere, while most of the international effort is focused into ground-based observation in the Southern Hemisphere. Measurements are currently scheduled in Winter 2021/22 for LSPE-SWIPE, with a flight duration up to 15 days, and in Summer 2021 with two years observations for LSPE-Strip. We describe the main features of the two instruments, identifying the most critical aspects of the design, in terms of impact into performance forecast. We estimate the expected sensitivity of each instrument and propagate their combined observing power to the sensitivity to cosmological parameters, including the effect of scanning strategy, component separation, residual foregrounds and partial sky coverage. We also set requirements on the control of the most critical systematic effects and describe techniques to mitigate their impact. LSPE can reach a sensitivity in tensor-to-scalar ratio of σ r < 0.01, and improve constrains on other cosmological parameters.

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“…This is a consolidated facility, flying every summer season a few stratospheric payloads for several weeks flights, thanks to NSF and NASA-CSBF. The Italian Space Agency has supported a pioneering program to fly LDBs from the Arctic airport of Longyearbyen (Svalbard, 78 o N) [23][24][25]. This allowed to fly two heavy payloads (SORA in 2009 and OLIMPO in 2018) and several lighter payloads (PEGASO, DUSTER), even during the Arctic night season, with a stratospheric environment potentially very appealing for CMB survey experiments [26].…”

Section: Flight Optionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Balloon-borne Cosmic Microwave Background experiments

et al. 2019

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Stratospheric balloon experiments play a unique role in current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) studies. CMB research has entered a precision phase, harvesting the detailed properties of its anisotropy, polarization and spectrum, at incredible precision levels. These measurements, however, require careful monitoring and subtraction of local backgrounds, produced by the earth atmosphere and the interstellar medium. High frequencies (larger than 180 GHz) are crucial for the measurements of interstellar dust contamination, but are degraded by atmospheric emission and its fluctuations, even in the best (cold and dry) sites on earth. For this reason, new balloon-borne missions, exploiting long-duration and ultra-long duration stratospheric flights, are being developed in several laboratories worldwide. These experiments have the double purpose of qualifying instrumentation and validating methods to be used on satellite missions, and produce CMB science at a relatively fast pace, synergically to ground-based CMB observatories.

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Precision CMB measurements with long-duration stratospheric balloons: activities in the Arctic

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

The large scale polarization explorer (LSPE) for CMB measurements: performance forecast

The large scale polarization explorer (LSPE) for CMB measurements: performance forecast

The large scale polarization explorer (LSPE) for CMB measurements: performance forecast

Balloon-borne Cosmic Microwave Background experiments

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