Characterizing foreground for redshifted 21 cm radiation: 150 MHz Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations

Abstract

Foreground removal is a major challenge for detecting the redshifted 21 cm neutral hydrogen (H I) signal from the Epoch of Reionization. We have used 150 MHz Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations to characterize the statistical properties of the foregrounds in four different fields of view. The measured multifrequency angular power spectrum Cℓ(Δν) is found to have values in the range 104–2 × 104 mK2 across 700 ≤ ℓ ≤ 2 × 104 and Δν ≤ 2.5 MHz, which is consistent with model predictions where point sources are the most dominant foreground component. The measured Cℓ(Δν) does not show a smooth Δν dependence, which poses a severe difficulty for foreground removal using polynomial fitting.