Simulating the Zody Emission in the Planck Mission

Abstract

The increasing sensitivity of cosmic microwave background (CMB) missions will require to significantly improve the accuracy in the subtraction of the various sources of Galactic foreground, from the most relevant components (synchrotron, dust and free-free emission) to those usually considered of minor relevance in CMB experiments. With respect to other Galactic diffuse components, the Zodiacal Light Emission (ZLE) is peculiar, depending not only on the observing direction but also on the location of the observer within the Solar System: ZLE behaves then as a large scale, time-dependent foreground. Starting from the existing far-infrared ZLE models, we discuss the impact of ZLE contribution in CMB maps and the level of contamination in time ordered data and maps expected from the forthcoming Planck space mission as well as the Planck capability to increase our knowledge of the ZLE properties.