The Herschel-Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI)

Creators: de Graauw, Th.; Phillips, T. G.; Boogert, A.; Chattopadhyay, G.; Desbat, J. -M.; Gauffre, S.; Karpov, A.; Kooi, J.; Zmuidzinas, J.; Borys, C.; Lord, S.; Morris, P.

Abstract

Aims. This paper describes the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) that was launched onboard ESA's Herschel Space Observatory in May 2009. Methods. The instrument is a set of 7 heterodyne receivers that are electronically tuneable, covering 480–1250 GHz with SIS mixers and the 1410–1910 GHz range with hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers. The local oscillator (LO) subsystem comprises a Ka-band synthesizer followed by 14 chains of frequency multipliers and 2 chains for each frequency band. A pair of auto-correlators and a pair of acousto-optical spectrometers process the two IF signals from the dual-polarization, single-pixel front-ends to provide instantaneous frequency coverage of 2 × 4 GHz, with a set of resolutions (125 kHz to 1 MHz) that are better than 0.1 km s^(-1). Results. After a successful qualification and a pre-launch TB/TV test program, the flight instrument is now in-orbit and completed successfully the commissioning and performance verification phase. The in-orbit performance of the receivers matches the pre-launch sensitivities. We also report on the in-orbit performance of the receivers and some first results of HIFI's operations.

Additional Information

© 2010 ESO. Received 1 April 2010; Accepted 13 May 2010; Published online 16 July 2010. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. The Herschel-HIFI instrument has been constructed, tested and prepared for operations by a large set of teams of dedicated engineers, scientists, and managers from 12 European and North American countries, with additional funding by grants from their national space agencies and science foundations. We acknowledge the support for the Netherlands by NWO; for Germany by grants 50OF000-1/2/5 of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) and by central resources of the Max-Planck-Society. For the USA a portion of this research was performed at the JPL, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and part of the NASA Herschel Science Center guaranteed-time observer program was provided by NASA; for France by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (CNRS/INSU) and Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES); for Italy by Agenzia Spaziale Italiana – ASI, Contract I/005/07/0, and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica INAF; for Canada by the Canadian Space Agency. For Poland this work has been partly supported by grant N203 393334 of the Science and High Education Ministry of Poland; for Spain support came from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin (Consejo de Investigaciones Cientificas) and Ministerio de Fomento (Instituto Geográfico Nacional); for Sweden support came from the Swedish National Space Board under grant numbers Dnr 136/04, Dnr 114/07; Dnr 286/05; Dnr 116/03, and by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. For Ireland support was provided by Enterprise Ireland through a number of Prodex grants. The home institutes have invested many resources into this project. Their contributions and continuous support are deeply appreciated by the HIFI consortium. Also the fruitful collaborations with ESA and the Herschel and HIFI industrial partners are acknowledged. This extremely challenging project is a team effort based upon the creativity, dedication, and perseverance of many individuals participating in this scientific and technological enterprise, amongst others: W. Aalders, A. Abrams, W. Ader, C. Amoros, G. Arbery, O. Armengaud, J. Baker, P. Baldetti, P. Barras, T. Bartels, A. Baryshev, A. Baudry, G. Beaudin, A. Beckers, M. Belgacem, C. Berthod, N. Biver, Y. Blanc, J. Bleeker, M. Bonenkamp, A. Boner, F. Boulanger, J.-C. Bouquier, H. Braafhart, J. Braine, M. Bruijn, C. Bruineman, P. Bruneau, N. Bruning, A. Campbell, M. Carter, C. Casteels, C. Chappert, P. Chavatte, W. Chun, J. Couterets, P. Crosby, J.-P. Crussaire, A. Csillaghy, Y. Cupissol, E. Dartois, F. Dauplay, N. Giurleo, R. de Haan, Doug Johnstone, T. de Jong, A. de Kleine, R. de la Rie, R. de Lange, J.-H. de Raignac, D. Deboffle, L. deJong, K. Deng, J. Dercksen, A. Deschamps, J. Diez Gamero, H. Doedens, C. du Maine, P. Encrenaz, R. Ferber, A. Feret, F. Flederus, M. Frerking, A. Fung, S. Gadomski, R. Garcia-Nogal, R. Gathier, T. Harper, L. Hotte, J. Gavira Izquierdo, N. Gehniau, A. Girard, F. Glize, J.-M. Glorian, G. Grund, S. Halleguen, D. Harding, F. Herpin, G. Hiemstra, L. Hiemstra, N. Hoac, W. Horinga, M. Houde, W. Janssen, H. Janzen, M. Jochemsen, G. Juchnikowski, A. Karl, S. Kikken, T. Kirst, P. Kohsiek, J. Koops van het Jagt, M. Kroug, B. Kuip, D. Lagrange, J. Lankwaarden, J.-M. Larr, P. Laubert, A. Lecacheux, B. Lecomte, E. Lecomte, K. Liao, Y. Longval, A. Loung, P. Lowes, Peter Martin, G. Martinez-Medina, H. E. Matthews, S. Matthias, J.-Y. Mayvial, W.McCutcheon, W. McGrath, K. Mercier, D. Miller, D. Monnier, G. Montignac, A. Morbidini, R. Moreno, P. Mueller, J. Newell, T. Newman, A. Nieuwenhuizen, J. Novag, H. Ode, A. Orzati, J. Panman, M. Paquette, G. Parks, A. Peralta, M. Perault, A. Perez Lopez, S. Phillips, E. Pizzi, G. Ploeger, Rene Plume, D. Pukala, J.-R. Rabasse, P. Ramon, M. Rataj, J. Recine, M. Ridder, R. Roelfsema, D. Romefort, C. Rosolen, L. Roucayrol, M. Rudin, K. Saad,W. Salomons, E. Sanchez, M. Schekkerman, R. Schuurhof, N. Snijders, J. Spatazz, J. Swift, B. Thomas, A. Tizon, M. Torres, C. Troung, R. Tsang, J. van der Eb, A. van der Horst, K. van der Hucht, R. van der Schuur, P. van Leeuwen, W. van Leeuwen, D. Van Nguyen, J. van Veldhuizen, H. van Weers, C. Vastel, J. Veenendaal, J. Velebir, H. Wang, D. Warden, S. Weinreb, M.Wells, K.Wielinga, M.Winkler, G.Winnewisser, S.Withington, Q. Xie, P. Yocom and A. Zijlstra. Thanks to their efforts the instrument could be tested and delivered to ESA and its scientific community. We are gratefull to the astronomers of the HIFI Key-Program teams and their Principal Investigators, in particular E. van Dishoeck, E. Bergin, C. Ceccarelli, M. Gerin, V. Bujarrabal, whose imagination about what HIFI would be able to observe helped us to get through the difficult phases in the HIFI development program. Also many thanks go to the members of the various FIRST/Herschel Science Teams and ESA Project Teams that worked for this mission and in particular to G. Winnewisser, H. Olthof, R. Genzel, U. Frisk, S. Volonte, G. Pilbratt, J. Riedinger, Th. Passvogel, C. Schamberg, and G. Crone.

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