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Simulation Products
Realistic simulations of the microwave sky have a number of uses, including testing the understanding of the underlying astrophysical processes, providing mock-skies for testing component separation algorithms, and contributing to future mission forecasts. As different simulations have different design goals, the set of simulated sky components varies between simulations, as do spatial resolutions and underlying assumptions. Click on a product name within the table below for more detailed information about each and to access that product's download page.
| Simulations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Release Date | Frequency [GHz] | Stokes | Description |
| Full-sky Models of Galactic Microwave Emission and Polarization at Sub-arcminute Scales for the Python Sky Model | 2025 | 30 - 402 (instrument specific) | IQU | New models of polarized Galactic dust and synchrotron emission at CMB frequencies that draw on the latest observational constraints and employ the ``polarization fraction tensor'' framework to couple intensity and polarization in a physically motivated way, and that allow for stochastic realizations of small-scale structure at sub-arcminute angular scales currently unconstrained by full-sky data. These models are incorporated into the publicly available Python Sky Model (PySM) software and additionally provide PySM interfaces to select models of dust and CO emission from the literature. The data link in the Product column points to the CMB-S4 Data Portal, hosting synthetically observed sky maps using these models and the beams and bandpasses of CMB-S4, LiteBIRD, Simons Observatory, and South Pole Telescope 3G. Further information can be found in the paper by The Pan-Experiment Galactic Science Group (2025) |
| High Resolution Microwave Full Sky Simulations |
2019 | 27, 30, 39, 44, 70, 93, 100, 143, 145, 217, 225, 280, 353 | I | Realistic, full-sky, HEALPix Nside=4096 (~1 arcmin) resolution simulations of the microwave sky.Modeled components include CMB, SZ, compact sources and diffuse Galactic emission. This is an update to the Sehgal/etal 2009 release and includes Simons Observatory forecasts. Simons Observatory Collaboration (2019) |
| High Resolution Microwave Full Sky Simulations | 2009 | 30, 90, 148, 219, 277, 350 | I | Realistic, full-sky, half-arcminute resolution simulations of the microwave sky. Modeled components include lensed and unlensed CMB, SZ, compact sources and dust emission. Sehgal et al. (2010) |
| TIGRESS Dust Emission Maps | 2019 | 353 | IQU | Full-sky, HEALPix Nside=128 synthetic dust thermal emission maps computed for multiple time-steps and multiple observers within the solar neighborhood. Models are generated by numerical simulations that employ a multiphase, turbulent, magnetized interstellar medium (MHD code and TIGRESS ISM framework). Kim et al. (2019) |
| WebSky Extragalactic CMB Mocks | 2020 | 143, 217, 353, 545, 857 | IQU | Provided are HEALPix.fits files over the full sky at nside=4096 of CIB (in MJy/sr) intensity, Compton-y, kSZ (mu K), CMB lensing convergence, and lensed and un-lensed CMB TT, EE, and BB maps, all from the same 122883 particle, 15.4 Gpc peak-patch and 2LPT based cosmological simulation, as well as the light cone halo catalog itself. The minimum halo mass used was ~1.4e12 M200,M. Higher resolution maps and different frequencies are available upon request. For a full description of the contents of these maps see The Websky Extragalactic CMB Simulations - https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.08787. Please contact webskymocks@gmail.com for more details. |
| Vansyngel Simulations | 2017 | 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 85, 90, 95, 145, 150, 155, 215, 220, 245, 270 | IQU | Full-sky simulated dust and synchrotron maps provided at HEALPix resolution Nside=2048 and at 15 frequency channels spanning 10-270 GHz. The maps are based on Planck and WMAP intensity data plus simulated Galactic magnetic field structure for polarization angles, as described in the readme file and by Vansyngel et al. (2017). For questions and/or comments, please contact francois.boulanger@phys.ens.fr |
