1,003 research outputs found
Revised planet brightness temperatures using the Planck /LFI 2018 data release
Aims. We present new estimates of the brightness temperatures of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune based on the measurements carried in 2009-2013 by Planck/LFI at 30, 44, and 70 GHz and released to the public in 2018. This work extends the results presented in the 2013 and 2015 Planck/LFI Calibration Papers, based on the data acquired in 2009-2011. Methods. Planck observed each planet up to eight times during the nominal mission. We processed time-ordered data from the 22 LFI radiometers to derive planet antenna temperatures for each planet and transit. We accounted for the beam shape, radiometer bandpasses, and several systematic effects. We compared our results with the results from the ninth year of WMAP, Planck/HFI observations, and existing data and models for planetary microwave emissivity. Results. For Jupiter, we obtain Tb = 144.9, 159.8, 170.5 K (\ub1 0.2 K at 1\u3c3, with temperatures expressed using the Rayleigh-Jeans scale) at 30, 44 and 70 GHz, respectively, or equivalently a band averaged Planck temperature Tb(ba) = 144.7, 160.3, 171.2 K in good agreement with WMAP and existing models. A slight excess at 30 GHz with respect to models is interpreted as an effect of synchrotron emission. Our measures for Saturn agree with the results from WMAP for rings Tb = 9.2 \ub1 1.4, 12.6 \ub1 2.3, 16.2 \ub1 0.8 K, while for the disc we obtain Tb = 140.0 \ub1 1.4, 147.2 \ub1 1.2, 150.2 \ub1 0.4 K, or equivalently a Tb(ba) = 139.7, 147.8, 151.0 K. Our measures for Uranus (Tb = 152 \ub1 6, 145 \ub1 3, 132.0 \ub1 2 K, or Tb(ba) = 152, 145, 133 K) and Neptune (Tb = 154 \ub1 11, 148 \ub1 9, 128 \ub1 3 K, or Tb(ba) = 154, 149, 128 K) agree closely with WMAP and previous data in literature
A systematic approach to the Planck LFI end-to-end test and its application to the DPC Level 1 pipeline
The Level 1 of the Planck LFI Data Processing Centre (DPC) is devoted to the
handling of the scientific and housekeeping telemetry. It is a critical
component of the Planck ground segment which has to strictly commit to the
project schedule to be ready for the launch and flight operations. In order to
guarantee the quality necessary to achieve the objectives of the Planck
mission, the design and development of the Level 1 software has followed the
ESA Software Engineering Standards. A fundamental step in the software life
cycle is the Verification and Validation of the software. The purpose of this
work is to show an example of procedures, test development and analysis
successfully applied to a key software project of an ESA mission. We present
the end-to-end validation tests performed on the Level 1 of the LFI-DPC, by
detailing the methods used and the results obtained. Different approaches have
been used to test the scientific and housekeeping data processing. Scientific
data processing has been tested by injecting signals with known properties
directly into the acquisition electronics, in order to generate a test dataset
of real telemetry data and reproduce as much as possible nominal conditions.
For the HK telemetry processing, validation software have been developed to
inject known parameter values into a set of real housekeeping packets and
perform a comparison with the corresponding timelines generated by the Level 1.
With the proposed validation and verification procedure, where the on-board and
ground processing are viewed as a single pipeline, we demonstrated that the
scientific and housekeeping processing of the Planck-LFI raw data is correct
and meets the project requirements.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures; this paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI
papers published on JINST:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/jins
Dynamic validation of the Planck/LFI thermal model
The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) is an array of cryogenically cooled
radiometers on board the Planck satellite, designed to measure the temperature
and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave backgrond (CMB) at 30, 44
and 70 GHz. The thermal requirements of the LFI, and in particular the
stringent limits to acceptable thermal fluctuations in the 20 K focal plane,
are a critical element to achieve the instrument scientific performance.
Thermal tests were carried out as part of the on-ground calibration campaign at
various stages of instrument integration. In this paper we describe the results
and analysis of the tests on the LFI flight model (FM) performed at Thales
Laboratories in Milan (Italy) during 2006, with the purpose of experimentally
sampling the thermal transfer functions and consequently validating the
numerical thermal model describing the dynamic response of the LFI focal plane.
This model has been used extensively to assess the ability of LFI to achieve
its scientific goals: its validation is therefore extremely important in the
context of the Planck mission. Our analysis shows that the measured thermal
properties of the instrument show a thermal damping level better than
predicted, therefore further reducing the expected systematic effect induced in
the LFI maps. We then propose an explanation of the increased damping in terms
of non-ideal thermal contacts.Comment: Planck LFI technical papers published by JINST:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/1748-022
Effect of Fourier filters in removing periodic systematic effects from CMB data
We consider the application of high-pass Fourier filters to remove periodic
systematic fluctuations from full-sky survey CMB datasets. We compare the
filter performance with destriping codes commonly used to remove the effect of
residual 1/f noise from timelines. As a realistic working case, we use
simulations of the typical Planck scanning strategy and Planck Low Frequency
Instrument noise performance, with spurious periodic fluctuations that mimic a
typical thermal disturbance. We show that the application of Fourier high-pass
filters in chunks always requires subsequent normalisation of induced offsets
by means of destriping. For a complex signal containing all the astrophysical
and instrumental components, the result obtained by applying filter and
destriping in series is comparable to the result obtained by destriping only,
which makes the usefulness of Fourier filters questionable for removing this
kind of effects.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, published in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Optimization of Planck/LFI on--board data handling
To asses stability against 1/f noise, the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI)
onboard the Planck mission will acquire data at a rate much higher than the
data rate allowed by its telemetry bandwith of 35.5 kbps. The data are
processed by an onboard pipeline, followed onground by a reversing step. This
paper illustrates the LFI scientific onboard processing to fit the allowed
datarate. This is a lossy process tuned by using a set of 5 parameters Naver,
r1, r2, q, O for each of the 44 LFI detectors. The paper quantifies the level
of distortion introduced by the onboard processing, EpsilonQ, as a function of
these parameters. It describes the method of optimizing the onboard processing
chain. The tuning procedure is based on a optimization algorithm applied to
unprocessed and uncompressed raw data provided either by simulations, prelaunch
tests or data taken from LFI operating in diagnostic mode. All the needed
optimization steps are performed by an automated tool, OCA2, which ends with
optimized parameters and produces a set of statistical indicators, among them
the compression rate Cr and EpsilonQ. For Planck/LFI the requirements are Cr =
2.4 and EpsilonQ <= 10% of the rms of the instrumental white noise. To speedup
the process an analytical model is developed that is able to extract most of
the relevant information on EpsilonQ and Cr as a function of the signal
statistics and the processing parameters. This model will be of interest for
the instrument data analysis. The method was applied during ground tests when
the instrument was operating in conditions representative of flight. Optimized
parameters were obtained and the performance has been verified, the required
data rate of 35.5 Kbps has been achieved while keeping EpsilonQ at a level of
3.8% of white noise rms well within the requirements.Comment: 51 pages, 13 fig.s, 3 tables, pdflatex, needs JINST.csl, graphicx,
txfonts, rotating; Issue 1.0 10 nov 2009; Sub. to JINST 23Jun09, Accepted
10Nov09, Pub.: 29Dec09; This is a preprint, not the final versio
Advanced modelling of the Planck-LFI radiometers
The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) is a radiometer array covering the 30-70
GHz spectral range on-board the ESA Planck satellite, launched on May 14th,
2009 to observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with unprecedented
precision. In this paper we describe the development and validation of a
software model of the LFI pseudo-correlation receivers which enables to
reproduce and predict all the main system parameters of interest as measured at
each of the 44 LFI detectors. These include system total gain, noise
temperature, band-pass response, non-linear response. The LFI Advanced RF Model
(LARFM) has been constructed by using commercial software tools and data of
each radiometer component as measured at single unit level. The LARFM has been
successfully used to reproduce the LFI behavior observed during the LFI
ground-test campaign. The model is an essential element in the database of LFI
data processing center and will be available for any detailed study of
radiometer behaviour during the survey.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, this paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI
papers published on JINST:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/jins
Off-line radiometric analysis of Planck/LFI data
The Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) is an array of 22
pseudo-correlation radiometers on-board the Planck satellite to measure
temperature and polarization anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) in three frequency bands (30, 44 and 70 GHz). To calibrate and verify the
performances of the LFI, a software suite named LIFE has been developed. Its
aims are to provide a common platform to use for analyzing the results of the
tests performed on the single components of the instrument (RCAs, Radiometric
Chain Assemblies) and on the integrated Radiometric Array Assembly (RAA).
Moreover, its analysis tools are designed to be used during the flight as well
to produce periodic reports on the status of the instrument. The LIFE suite has
been developed using a multi-layered, cross-platform approach. It implements a
number of analysis modules written in RSI IDL, each accessing the data through
a portable and heavily optimized library of functions written in C and C++. One
of the most important features of LIFE is its ability to run the same data
analysis codes both using ground test data and real flight data as input. The
LIFE software suite has been successfully used during the RCA/RAA tests and the
Planck Integrated System Tests. Moreover, the software has also passed the
verification for its in-flight use during the System Operations Verification
Tests, held in October 2008.Comment: Planck LFI technical papers published by JINST:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/1748-022
Planck-LFI: Design and Performance of the 4 Kelvin Reference Load Unit
The LFI radiometers use a pseudo-correlation design where the signal from the
sky is continuously compared with a stable reference signal, provided by a
cryogenic reference load system. The reference unit is composed by small
pyramidal horns, one for each radiometer, 22 in total, facing small absorbing
targets, made of a commercial resin ECCOSORB CR (TM), cooled to approximately
4.5 K. Horns and targets are separated by a small gap to allow thermal
decoupling. Target and horn design is optimized for each of the LFI bands,
centered at 70, 44 and 30 GHz. Pyramidal horns are either machined inside the
radiometer 20K module or connected via external electro-formed bended
waveguides. The requirement of high stability of the reference signal imposed a
careful design for the radiometric and thermal properties of the loads.
Materials used for the manufacturing have been characterized for thermal, RF
and mechanical properties. We describe in this paper the design and the
performance of the reference system.Comment: This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article
accepted for publication in JINST. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for
any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version
derived from it. The definitive publisher authenticated version is available
online at [10.1088/1748-0221/4/12/T12006]. 14 pages, 34 figure
ESPRESSO: The next European exoplanet hunter
The acronym ESPRESSO stems for Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and
Stable Spectroscopic Observations; this instrument will be the next VLT high
resolution spectrograph. The spectrograph will be installed at the
Combined-Coud\'e Laboratory of the VLT and linked to the four 8.2 m Unit
Telescopes (UT) through four optical Coud\'e trains. ESPRESSO will combine
efficiency and extreme spectroscopic precision. ESPRESSO is foreseen to achieve
a gain of two magnitudes with respect to its predecessor HARPS, and to improve
the instrumental radial-velocity precision to reach the 10 cm/s level. It can
be operated either with a single UT or with up to four UTs, enabling an
additional gain in the latter mode. The incoherent combination of four
telescopes and the extreme precision requirements called for many innovative
design solutions while ensuring the technical heritage of the successful HARPS
experience. ESPRESSO will allow to explore new frontiers in most domains of
astrophysics that require precision and sensitivity. The main scientific
drivers are the search and characterization of rocky exoplanets in the
habitable zone of quiet, nearby G to M-dwarfs and the analysis of the
variability of fundamental physical constants. The project passed the final
design review in May 2013 and entered the manufacturing phase. ESPRESSO will be
installed at the Paranal Observatory in 2016 and its operation is planned to
start by the end of the same year.Comment: 12 pages, figures included, accepted for publication in Astron. Nach
Planck-LFI radiometers' spectral response
The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) is an array of pseudo-correlation
radiometers on board the Planck satellite, the ESA mission dedicated to
precision measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The LFI covers three
bands centred at 30, 44 and 70 GHz, with a goal bandwidth of 20% of the central
frequency.
The characterization of the broadband frequency response of each radiometer
is necessary to understand and correct for systematic effects, particularly
those related to foreground residuals and polarization measurements. In this
paper we present the measured band shape of all the LFI channels and discuss
the methods adopted for their estimation. The spectral characterization of each
radiometer was obtained by combining the measured spectral response of
individual units through a dedicated RF model of the LFI receiver scheme.
As a consistency check, we also attempted end-to-end spectral measurements of
the integrated radiometer chain in a cryogenic chamber. However, due to
systematic effects in the measurement setup, only qualitative results were
obtained from these tests. The measured LFI bandpasses exhibit a moderate level
of ripple, compatible with the instrument scientific requirements.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, this paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI
papers published on JINST:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/jins
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