On-site performance of GroundBIRD, a CMB polarization telescope for large angular scale observations

Abstract

GroundBIRD is a millimeter-wave telescope to observe the polarization patterns of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The target science topics are primordial gravitational waves from cosmic inflation and reionization optical depth. Therefore, this telescope is designed to achieve the highest sensitivity at large angular scales, ℓ = 6 - 300. For wide sky observations (∼40% full-sky), scanning at a high rotation speed (120°/s) is important to remove atmospheric fluctuations. Microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) is utilized with the fast GroundBIRD rotation since its good time response. We have started the commissioning run at the Teide Observatory in the Canary Islands. We report the performance of the telescope, receiver, and data acquisition system, including cooling achievements, observations of astronomical objects, and observations taken during several days ahead of our main survey observations.