STARFIRE-2: Can we detect the global redshifted 21-cm signal from the cosmic dawn in Earth orbit?

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the feasibility of detecting the cosmic dawn's 21-cm signal from Earth orbit, proposing an algorithm to estimate and mitigate FM radio interference for improved observational sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces STARFIRE-2, an algorithm to model and reduce FM-based RFI in orbit, and assesses optimal orbital configurations for 21-cm signal detection.

Findings

Detection feasible from low-Earth, near-polar orbit with thermal noise limits.

Optimized orbital scenarios significantly reduce RFI, enabling high-confidence recovery of cosmic dawn signals.

The algorithm can be adapted for other radio astronomy experiments.

Abstract

Detecting the redshifted global 21-cm signal from the cosmic dawn (CD) remains a major challenge due to strong terrestrial Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), particularly dominated by Frequency Modulation (FM) transmissions in the 88-110 MHz range. While observations from the radio-quiet lunar farside are ideal, Earth orbit offers an intermediate and simpler alternative that may mitigate several limitations of ground-based experiments. We assess the feasibility of detecting the global 21-cm signal from Earth orbit by quantifying FM-based RFI at different altitudes and orbital configurations. We present STARFIRE-2 (Simulation of TerrestriAl Radio Frequency Interference in oRbits around Earth -- 2), an algorithm that estimates FM transmitter-based RFI intercepted by radiometers in orbit. The model constructs a global FM transmitter database and compensates for incomplete data using statistical methods. Using PRATUSH as the reference experiment, we simulate a range of orbital scenarios to identify configurations that minimize RFI and optimize sensitivity for global 21-cm detection. The algorithm can also be adapted for other experiments. Simulations indicate that conducting such an experiment from Earth orbit is feasible for a thermal noise limited instrument placed in a low-Earth, near-polar orbit. Mock sky observations further demonstrate that most theoretically plausible cosmic dawn 21-cm signals can be recovered with high confidence under these optimized orbital conditions.