maria goes NIFTy: Gaussian Process-Based Reconstruction and Denoising of Simulated (Sub-)Millimetre Single-Dish Telescope Data

Abstract

(Sub-)millimetre single-dish telescopes feature faster mapping speeds and access larger spatial scales than their interferometric counterparts. However, atmospheric fluctuations tend to dominate their signals and complicate recovery of the astronomical sky. Here we develop a framework for Gaussian process-based sky reconstruction and separation of the atmospheric emission from the astronomical signal based on Numerical Information Field Theory (NIFTy). To validate this novel approach, we use the maria software to generate synthetic time-ordered observational data mimicking the MUSTANG-2 bolometric array. This approach leads to significantly improved sky reconstructions versus traditional methods.