Measurements of tropospheric ice clouds with a ground-based CMB polarization experiment, POLARBEAR
- Takakura, S.
- Aguilar-Faundez, M. A. O.
- Akiba, Y.
- Arnold, K.
- Baccigalupi, C.
- Barron, D.
- Beck, D.
- Bianchini, F.
- Boettger, D.
- Borrill, J.
- Cheung, K.
- Chinone, Y.
- Elleflot, T.
- Errard, J.
- Fabbian, G.
- Feng, C.
- Goeckner-Wald, N.
- Hamada, T.
- Hasegawa, M.
- Hazumi, M.
- Howe, L.
- Kaneko, D.
- Katayama, N.
- Keating, B.
- Keskitalo, R.
- Kisner, T.
- Krachmalnicoff, N.
- Kusaka, A.
- Lee, A. T.
- Lowry, L. N.
- Matsuda, F. T.
- May, A. J.
- Minami, Y.
- Navaroli, M.
- Nishino, H.
- Piccirillo, L.
- Poletti, D.
- Puglisi, G.
- Reichardt, C. L.
- Segawa, Y.
- Silva-Feaver, M.
- Siritanasak, P.
- Suzuki, A.
- Tajima, O.
- Takatori, S.
- Tanabe, D.
- Teply, G. P.
- Tsai, C.
DOIAbstract
The polarization of the atmosphere has been a long-standing concern for ground-based experiments targeting cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. Ice crystals in upper tropospheric clouds scatter thermal radiation from the ground and produce a horizontally polarized signal. We report a detailed analysis of the cloud signal using a ground-based CMB experiment, Polarbear, located at the Atacama desert in Chile and observing at 150 GHz. We observe horizontally polarized temporal increases of low-frequency fluctuations ("polarized bursts," hereafter) of ≲0.1 K when clouds appear in a webcam monitoring the telescope and the sky. The hypothesis of no correlation between polarized bursts and clouds is rejected with >24σ statistical signif...
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