Status Report

The BaR-SPOrt Experiment

By SpaceRef Editor

January 2, 2003

Filed under arXiv.org e-Print archive, Astrophysics, US

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0301020

From: Mario Zannoni <zannoni@mi.iasf.cnr.it>

Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 15:01:51 GMT   (609kb)

The BaR-SPOrt Experiment

Authors:
M. Zannoni,
S. Cortiglioni,
G. Bernardi,
E. Carretti,
S. Cecchini,
C. Macculi,
E. Morelli,
C. Sbarra,
G. Ventura,
L. Nicastro,
J. Monari,
M. Poloni,
S. Poppi,
V. Natale,
M. Baralis,
O. Peverini,
R. Tascone,
G. Virone,
A. Boscaleri,
E. Pascale,
G. Boella,
S. Bonometto,
M. Gervasi,
G. Sironi,
M. Tucci,
R. Nesti,
R. Fabbri,
P. de Bernardis,
M. De Petris,
S. Masi,
M.V. Sazhin,
E.N. Vinyajkin

Comments: 12 pages, 10 figures, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation
(Polaimetry in Astronomy) Hawaii August 2002 SPIE Meeting

BaR-SPOrt (Balloon-borne Radiometers for Sky Polarisation Observations) is an
experiment to measure the linearly polarized emission of sky patches at 32 and
90 GHz with sub-degree angular resolution. It is equipped with high sensitivity
correlation polarimeters for simultaneous detection of both the U and Q stokes
parameters of the incident radiation. On-axis telescope is used to observe
angular scales where the expected polarization of the Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMBP) peaks. This project shares most of the know-how and
sophisticated technology developed for the SPOrt experiment onboard the
International Space Station. The payload is designed to flight onboard long
duration stratospheric balloons both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres
where low foreground emission sky patches are accessible. Due to the weakness
of the expected CMBP signal (in the range of microK), much care has been spent
to optimize the instrument design with respect to the systematics generation,
observing time efficiency and long term stability. In this contribution we
present the instrument design, and first tests on some components of the 32 GHz
radiometer.