The pre-launch Planck Sky Model: a model of sky emission at submillimetre to centimetre wavelengths

¹ Laboratoire APC, CNRS UMR7164, Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, 10 rue A. Domon et L. Duquet, 75013 Paris, France
e-mail: delabrouille@apc.univ-paris7.fr
² LPNHE, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
³ PCCP, Bâtiment Condorcet, 10 rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet, 75205 Paris, France
⁴ DSM/Irfu/SPP, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
⁵ Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS (UMR 8617) Université Paris-Sud 11, Bâtiment 121, Orsay, France
⁶ CITA, University of Toronto, 60 St. George St., Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada
⁷ SISSA, Astrophysics Sector, via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy
⁸ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, Padova, Italy
⁹ Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
¹⁰ Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK
¹¹ Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, Toulouse, and CNRS, IRAP9, Av. colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
¹² Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS UMR 7095, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, Paris, France
¹³ Imperial College London, Astrophysics group, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
¹⁴ Centro de Astrofisica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal
¹⁵ Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
¹⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85741 Garching, Germany
¹⁷ European Space Agency, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
¹⁸ Laboratoire MAS, École Centrale Paris, Grande Voie des Vignes, 92295 Châtenay-Malabry, France
¹⁹ Institut de Théorie des Phénomènes Physiques, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
²⁰ Theory Division, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
²¹ LAPTh (CNRS Université de Savoie), BP 110, 74941 Annecy-le-Vieux Cedex, France
²² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia G. Galilei, Università degli Studi di Padova, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
²³ LPSC, CNRS/IN2P3, Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble I, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, 53 rue des Martyrs, 38026 Grenoble Cedex, France
²⁴ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, via P. Gobetti n. 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
²⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica, 1, Roma, Italy
²⁶ NASA Herschel Science Center / California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, California, USA
²⁷ Haverford College Astronomy Department, 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, Pennsylvania, USA
²⁸ California Institute ofTechnology, Pasadena, California, USA
²⁹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA
³⁰ INAF/IASF, via P. Gobetti n. 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
³¹ Universität Heidelberg, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Überle-Str. 2, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³² Departamento de Física, Universidad de Oviedo, Avda. Calvo Sotelo s/n, Oviedo, Spain

Received: 15 July 2012
Accepted: 5 March 2013

Abstract

We present the Planck Sky Model (PSM), a parametric model for generating all-sky, few arcminute resolution maps of sky emission at submillimetre to centimetre wavelengths, in both intensity and polarisation. Several options are implemented to model the cosmic microwave background, Galactic diffuse emission (synchrotron, free-free, thermal and spinning dust, CO lines), Galactic H ii regions, extragalactic radio sources, dusty galaxies, and thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich signals from clusters of galaxies. Each component is simulated by means of educated interpolations/extrapolations of data sets available at the time of the launch of the Planck mission, complemented by state-of-the-art models of the emission. Distinctive features of the simulations are spatially varying spectral properties of synchrotron and dust; different spectral parameters for each point source; modelling of the clustering properties of extragalactic sources and of the power spectrum of fluctuations in the cosmic infrared background. The PSM enables the production of random realisations of the sky emission, constrained to match observational data within their uncertainties. It is implemented in a software package that is regularly updated with incoming information from observations. The model is expected to serve as a useful tool for optimising planned microwave and sub-millimetre surveys and testing data processing and analysis pipelines. It is, in particular, used to develop and validate data analysis pipelines within the Planck collaboration. A version of the software that can be used for simulating the observations for a variety of experiments is made available on a dedicated website.