Abstract

The Tomographic Ionized-carbon Mapping Experiment (TIME) instrument is a ground-based millimeter-wavelength grating spectrometer that illuminates a cryogenically cooled array of 1920 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers. The goal of TIME is to generate line intensity maps of singly ionized carbon ([CII]) during the Epoch of Reionization, when hydrogen became reionized by stellar radiation and the first galaxies were forming. This measurement requires a detailed understanding of the noise, most notably the 1/f noise from the time-varying atmosphere. In my thesis work, I performed an analysis of the power spectral density (PSD) and a traditional principal component analysis (PCA) on TIME data observed using the TIME instrument with the goal of better understanding the as-measured noise properties so they can be modeled and removed from the astronomical signal. I analyzed the raw signal of selected detectors from 11 observations of the sky without a background source from the 2021-2022 commissioning run of TIME at the Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO) 12 m radio dish at Kitt Peak. The PSD analysis yielded estimates of the atmospheric power, white noise power, turnover frequency, and slope for each detector in each observation. These results showed that the atmospheric power in the high-frequency channels follows atmospheric models; however, the power in low-frequency channels is underestimated. A traditional principal component analysis (PCA) reproduced these findings. This trend could be caused by the low-frequency channels being more optically thick than previously modeled or by an incorrect calibration of the observations into flux units; however, more research is required to determine the cause of this underestimation.

Publication Date

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Astrophysical Sciences and Technology (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Physics and Astronomy, School of

College

College of Science

Advisor

Michael Zemcov

Advisor/Committee Member

Donald F. Figer

Advisor/Committee Member

Michael Richmond

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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