Simulated foreground predictions for HI at z = 3.35 with the Ooty Wide Field Array: I. Instrument and the foregrounds

Abstract

Foreground removal is the most important step in detecting the large-scale redshifted HI 21-cm signal. Modelling foreground spectra is challenging and is further complicated by the chromatic response of the telescope. We present a multi-frequency angular power spectrum (MAPS) estimator for use in a survey for redshifted HI 21-cm emission from z~3.35, and demonstrate its ability to accurately characterize the foregrounds. This survey will be carried out with the two wide-field interferometer modes of the upgraded Ooty Radio Telescope, called the Ooty Wide Field Array (OWFA), at 326.5 MHz. We have tailored the two-visibility correlation for OWFA to estimate the MAPS and test it with simulated foregrounds. In the process, we describe a software model that encodes the geometry and the details of the telescope, and simulates a realistic model for the bright radio sky. This article presents simulations which include the full chromatic response of the telescope, in addition to the frequency dependence intrinsic to the foregrounds. We find that the visibility correlation MAPS estimator recovers the input angular power spectrum accurately, and that the instrument response to the foregrounds dominates the systematic errors in the recovered foreground power spectra.