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Published September 2013 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Flux calibration of broad-band far-infrared and submillimetre photometric instruments: theory and application to Herschel-SPIRE

Abstract

Photometric instruments operating at far-infrared to millimetre wavelengths often have broad spectral passbands (λ/Δλ ∼ 3 or less), especially those operating in space. A broad passband can result in significant variation of the beam profile and aperture efficiency across the passband, effects which thus far have not generally been taken into account in the flux calibration of such instruments. With absolute calibration uncertainties associated with the brightness of primary calibration standards now in the region of 5 per cent or less, variation of the beam properties across the passband can be a significant contributor to the overall calibration accuracy for extended emission. We present a calibration framework which takes such variations into account for both antenna-coupled and absorber-coupled focal plane architectures. The scheme covers point source and extended source cases, and also the intermediate case of a semi-extended source profile. We apply the new method to the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) photometer on board the Herschel Space Observatory.

Additional Information

© 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2013 June 5. Received 2013 May 21; in original form 2013 February 8. First published online: July 24, 2013. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. SPIRE has been developed by a consortium of institutes led by Cardiff Univ. (UK) and including: Univ. Lethbridge (Canada); NAOC (China); CEA, LAM (France); IFSI, Univ. Padua (Italy); IAC (Spain); Stockholm Observatory (Sweden); Imperial College London, RAL, UCL-MSSL, UKATC, Univ. Sussex (UK); and Caltech, JPL, NHSC, Univ. Colorado (USA). This development has been supported by national funding agencies: CSA (Canada); NAOC (China); CEA, CNES, CNRS (France); ASI (Italy); MCINN (Spain); SNSB (Sweden); STFC, UKSA (UK); and NASA (USA). This research made use of APLPY, an open-source plotting package for PYTHON hosted at http://aplpy.github.com

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Submitted - 1306_1778v1.pdf

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Created:
September 26, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023