Data Streams from the Low Frequency Instrument On-Board the Planck Satellite: Statistical Analysis and Compression Efficiency

The expected data rate produced by the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) planned to fly on the ESA Planck mission in 2007, is over a factor 8 larger than the bandwidth allowed by the spacecraft transmission system to download the LFI data. We discuss the application of lossless compression to Planck/LFI data streams in order to reduce the overall data flow. We perform both theoretical analysis and experimental tests using realistically simulated data streams in order to fix the statistical properties of the signal and the maximal compression rate allowed by several lossless compression algorithms. We studied the influence of signal composition and of acquisition parameters on the compression rate Cr and develop a semiempirical formalism to account for it. The best performing compressor tested up to now is the arithmetic compression of order 1, designed for optimizing the compression of white noise like signals, which allows an overall compression rate = 2.65 +/- 0.02. We find that such result is not improved by other lossless compressors, being the signal almost white noise dominated. Lossless compression algorithms alone will not solve the bandwidth problem but needs to be combined with other techniques.Comment: May 3, 2000 release, 61 pages, 6 figures coded as eps, 9 tables (4 included as eps), LaTeX 2.09 + assms4.sty, style file included, submitted for the pubblication on PASP May 3, 200

Prácticas de bioseguridad adoptadas en grandes explotaciones de bovinos de carne de la zona Central de Chile

Bioseguridad se refiere al conjunto de acciones implementadas, orientadas a prevenir el ingreso y salida de agentes causantes de enfermedades en un área que se intenta proteger, así como también limitar su diseminación al interior de esta unidad. El objetivo de este estudio fue definir especificaciones técnicas de bioseguridad predial para rebaños de bovinos de carne y determinar el nivel de cumplimiento de estas prácticas en explotaciones de bovinos de carne de la zona central. Para ello se elaboró un Protocolo de Bioseguridad Predial, compuesto de 80 especificaciones técnicas. Este Protocolo fue evaluado mediante la aplicación de una encuesta en 10 planteles bovinos de producción de carne de ciclo completo con una masa superior a 1000 animales, ubicados en las regiones Quinta, Metropolitana y Sexta. La información obtenida se analizó en forma descriptiva y los resultados fueron expresados en porcentajes de cumplimiento. Los resultados obtenidos de este estudio indicaron que el 50,2% de las especificaciones técnicas de bioseguridad descritas son aplicadas. El mayor nivel de cumplimiento se observó en la prevención de la diseminación de agentes causantes de enfermedades (64,8%), observándose la aplicación de programas de vacunación y control de parásitos en la totalidad de los planteles. En la prevención de la salida de agentes causantes de enfermedades, se registró un nivel de cumplimiento del 40%, detectándose como prácticas habituales el envío de animales enfermos hacia otros planteles. Se observó una reducida implementación de prácticas destinadas a prevenir el ingreso de agentes causantes de enfermedades (45,7%), en especial en el ingreso de personas al plantel. Se concluye que las explotaciones de bovinos de carne evaluadas tienen riesgo de introducir y diseminar agentes causantes de enfermedades que pueden afectar la salud animal y alterar la seguridad y calidad de un producto alimenticio

Trade-off between angular resolution and straylight contamination in CMB anisotropy experiments. II. Straylight evaluation

Satellite CMB anisotropy missions and new generation of balloon-borne and ground experiments, make use of complex multi-frequency instruments at the focus of a meter class telescope. Between 70 GHz and 300 GHz, where foreground contamination is minimum, it is extremely important to reach the best trade-off between the improvement of the angular resolution and the minimization of the straylight contamination mainly due to the Galactic emission. We focus here, as a working case, on the 30 and 100 GHz channels of the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI). We evaluate the GSC introduced by the most relevant Galactic foreground components for a reference set of optical configurations. We show that it is possible to improve the angular resolution of 5-7% by keeping the overall GSC below the level of few microKelvin. A comparison between the level of straylight introduced by the different Galactic components for different beam regions is presented. Simple approximate relations giving the rms and peak-to-peak levels of the GSC are provided. We compare the results obtained at 100 GHz with those at 30 GHz, where GSC is more critical. Finally, we compare the results based on Galactic foreground templates derived from radio and IR surveys with those based on WMAP maps including CMB and extragalactic source fluctuations.Comment: Submitted to A&A. Quality of the figures was degraded for size-related reason

New insights into foreground analysis of the WMAP five-year data using FASTICA

In this paper, we present a foreground analysis of the WMAP 5-year data using the FASTICA algorithm, improving on the treatment of the WMAP 3-year data in Bottino et al 2008. We revisit the nature of the free-free spectrum with the emphasis on attempting to confirm or otherwise the spectral feature claimed in Dobbler et al 2008b and explained in terms of spinning dust emission in the warm ionised medium. With the application of different Galactic cuts, the index is always flatter than the canonical value of 2.14 except for the Kp0 mask which is steeper. Irrespective of this, we can not confirm the presence of any feature in the free-free spectrum. We experiment with a more extensive approach to the cleaning of the data, introduced in connection with the iterative application of FASTICA. We confirm the presence of a residual foreground whose spatial distribution is concentrated along the Galactic plane, with pronounced emission near the Galactic center. This is consistent with the WMAP haze detected in Finkbeiner 2004. Finally, we attempted to perform the same analysis on full-sky maps. The code returns good results even for those regions where the cross-talk among the components is high. However, slightly better results in terms of the possibility of reconstructing a full-sky CMB map, are achieved with a simultaneous analysis of both the five WMAP maps and foreground templates. Nonetheless, some residuals are still present and detected in terms of an excess in the CMB power spectrum, on small angular scales. Therefore, a minimal mask for the brightest regions of the plane is necessary, and has been defined.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 25 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables. Version with full resolution figures available at: http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~bottino/downloads/bottino_etal.pd

Full Sky Study of Diffuse Galactic Emission at Decimeter Wavelengths

A detailed knowledge of the Galactic radio continuum is of high interest for studies of the dynamics and structure of the Galaxy as well as for the problem of foreground removal in Cosmic Microwave Background measurements. In this work we present a full-sky study of the diffuse Galactic emission at frequencies of few GHz, where synchrotron radiation is by far the dominant component. We perform a detailed combined analysis of the extended surveys at 408, 1420 and 2326 MHz (by Haslam et al. 1982, Reich 1982, Reich & Reich, 1986 and Jonas et al. 1998, respectively). Using the technique applied by Schlegel et al. (1998) to the IRAS data, we produce destriped versions of the three maps. This allows us to construct a nearly-full-sky map of the spectral index and of the normalization factor with sub-degree angular resolution. The resulting distribution of the spectral indices has an average of beta = 2.695 and dispersion sigma_{beta} = 0.120. This is representative for the Galactic diffuse synchrotron emission, with only minor effects from free-free emission and point sources.Comment: 10 pages, 16 jpeg figures, accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics, Comments and figure adde

Characterization of the Hamamatsu R11265-103-M64 multi-anode photomultiplier tube

The aim of this paper is to fully characterize the new multi-anode photomultiplier tube R11265-103-M64, produced by Hamamatsu. Its high effective active area (77%), its pixel size, the low dark signal rate and the capability to detect single photon signals make this tube suitable for an application in high energy physics, such as for RICH detectors. Four tubes and two different bias voltage dividers have been tested. The results of a standard characterization of the gain and the anode uniformity, the dark signal rate, the cross-talk and the device behaviour as a function of temperature have been studied. The behaviour of the tube is studied in a longitudinal magnetic field up to 100 Gauss. Shields made of a high permeability material are also investigated. The deterioration of the device performance due to long time operation at intense light exposure is studied. A quantitative analysis of the variation of the gain and the dark signals rate due to the aging is described.Comment: 22 page

The Planck-LFI instrument: analysis of the 1/f noise and implications for the scanning strategy

We study the impact of the 1/f noise on the PLANCK Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) osbervations (Mandolesi et al 1998) and describe a simple method for removing striping effects from the maps for a number of different scanning stategies. A configuration with an angle between telescope optical axis and spin-axis just less than 90 degrees (namely 85 degress) shows good destriping efficiency for all receivers in the focal plane, with residual noise degradation < 1-2 %. In this configuration, the full sky coverage can be achieved for each channel separately with a 5 degrees spin-axis precession to maintain a constant solar aspect angle.Comment: submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, 12 pages, 15 PostSript figure