Extreme digitization for ground-based cosmic microwave background experiments

ABSTRACT The large size of the time-ordered data of cosmic microwave background experiments presents challenges for mission planning and data analysis. These issues are particularly significant for Antarctica- and space-based experiments, which depend on satellite links to transmit data. We explore...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2019-08, Vol.487 (3), p.3279-3287
Main Authors: Balkenhol, L, Reichardt, C L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy & Astrophysics
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
cosmic background radiation
polarization, techniques: miscellaneous
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:ABSTRACT The large size of the time-ordered data of cosmic microwave background experiments presents challenges for mission planning and data analysis. These issues are particularly significant for Antarctica- and space-based experiments, which depend on satellite links to transmit data. We explore the viability of reducing the time-ordered data to a few bit numbers to address these challenges. Unlike lossless compression, few bit digitization introduces additional noise into the data. We present a set of one, two, and three bit digitization schemes and measure the increase in noise in the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization power spectra. The digitization noise is independent of angular scale and is well described as a constant percentage of the original detector noise. Three bit digitization increases the map noise level by ${\lt } 2{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, while reducing the data volume by a factor of 10 relative to 32-bit floats. Extreme digitization is a promising strategy for upcoming experiments.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stz1497