The ARCADE 2 Instrument
Abstract
The second generation Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission (ARCADE 2) instrument is a balloon-borne experiment to measure the radiometric temperature of the cosmic microwave background and Galactic and extra-Galactic emission at six frequencies from 3 to 90 GHz. ARCADE 2 utilizes a double-nulled design where emission from the sky is compared to that from an external cryogenic full-aperture blackbody calibrator by cryogenic switching radiometers containing internal blackbody reference loads. In order to further minimize sources of systematic error, ARCADE 2 features a cold fully open aperture with all radiometrically active components maintained at near 2.7 K without windows or other warm objects, achieved through a novel thermal design. We discuss the design and performance of the ARCADE 2 instrument in its 2005 and 2006 flights.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0901.0546,
title = {The ARCADE 2 Instrument},
author = {J. Singal and D. J. Fixsen and A. Kogut and S. Levin and M. Limon and P. Lubin and P. Mirel and M. Seiffert and T. Villela and E. Wollack and C. A. Wuensche},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0901.0546},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
12 pages, 14 figues, 3 tables, 2 figures added, Accepted to ApJ