WOMBAT & FORECAST: Making Realistic Maps of the Microwave Sky
Abstract
The Wavelength-Oriented Microwave Background Analysis Team (WOMBAT) is constructing microwave maps which will be more realistic than previous simulations. Our foreground models represent a considerable improvement: where spatial templates are available for a given foreground, we predict the flux and spectral index of that component at each place on the sky and estimate uncertainties. We will produce maps containing simulated CMB anisotropy combined with expected foregrounds. The simulated maps will be provided to the community as the WOMBAT Challenge, so such maps can be analyzed to extract cosmological parameters by scientists who are unaware of their input values. This will test the efficacy of foreground subtraction, power spectrum analysis, and parameter estimation techniques and help identify the areas most in need of progress. These maps are also part of the FORECAST project, which allows web-based access to the known foreground maps for the planning of CMB missions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9903248,
title = {WOMBAT & FORECAST: Making Realistic Maps of the Microwave Sky},
author = {Andrew H. Jaffe and Eric Gawiser and Douglas Finkbeiner and Joanne C. Baker and Amedeo Balbi and Marc Davis and Shaul Hanany and William Holzapfel and Mark Krumholz and Leonidas Moustakas and James Robinson and Evan Scannapieco and George F. Smoot and Joseph Silk},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9903248},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
10 pages, color figures, WOMBAT Challenge simulations now available at: http://astro.berkeley.edu/wombat/ . Invited review in "Microwave Foregrounds", eds. A. de Oliveira-Costa & M. Tegmark (ASP, San Francisco, 1999)