Detecting Cosmic Dawn Signal from Earth Orbit

This paper investigates the feasibility of detecting the redshifted 21-cm signal from the cosmic dawn (CD) from Earth orbit. Detecting this signal is challenging due to strong terrestrial Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), particularly from FM transmissions. While the lunar farside is ideal, Earth orbit presents a simpler, intermediate alternative. The authors introduce STARFIRE-2, an algorithm that estimates FM transmitter-based RFI intercepted by orbiting radiometers. Simulations using STARFIRE-2 indicate that detection is feasible for a thermal noise limited instrument in a low-Earth, near-polar orbit. Mock sky observations suggest that most theoretically plausible cosmic dawn 21-cm signals can be recovered with high confidence under optimized conditions. This research highlights the potential of Earth orbit for cosmological observations, but emphasizes the need for effective RFI mitigation strategies. The use of alphaXiv, CatalyzeX, DagsHub, Gotit.pub, Hugging Face, and ScienceCast indicates a commitment to open science and reproducible research.

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