Absolute Flux Calibration of the IRAC Instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope using Hubble Space Telescope Flux Standards

The absolute flux calibration of the James Webb Space Telescope will be based on a set of stars observed by the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. In order to cross-calibrate the two facilities, several A, G, and white dwarf (WD) stars are observed with both Spitzer and Hubble and are the prototypes for a set of JWST calibration standards. The flux calibration constants for the four Spitzer IRAC bands 1-4 are derived from these stars and are 2.3, 1.9, 2.0, and 0.5% lower than the official cold-mission IRAC calibration of Reach et al. (2005), i.e. in agreement within their estimated errors of ~2%. The causes of these differences lie primarily in the IRAC data reduction and secondarily in the SEDs of our standard stars. The independent IRAC 8 micron band-4 fluxes of Rieke et al. (2008) are about 1.5 +/- 2% higher than those of Reach et al. and are also in agreement with our 8 micron result.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

The virtual observatory service TheoSSA: Establishing a database of synthetic stellar flux standards. I. NLTE spectral analysis of the DA-type white dwarf G 191-B2B

H-rich, DA-type white dwarfs are particularly suited as primary standard stars for flux calibration. State-of-the-art NLTE models consider opacities of species up to trans-iron elements and provide reliable synthetic stellar-atmosphere spectra to compare with observation. We establish a database of theoretical spectra of stellar flux standards that are easily accessible via a web interface. In the framework of the Virtual Observatory, the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory developed the registered service TheoSSA. It provides easy access to stellar spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and is intended to ingest SEDs calculated by any model-atmosphere code. In case of the DA white dwarf G 191-B2B, we demonstrate that the model reproduces not only its overall continuum shape but also the numerous metal lines exhibited in its ultraviolet spectrum. TheoSSA is in operation and contains presently a variety of SEDs for DA white dwarfs. It will be extended in the near future and can host SEDs of all primary and secondary flux standards. The spectral analysis of G 191-B2B has shown that our hydrostatic models reproduce the observations best at an effective temperature of 60000 +/- 2000K and a surface gravity of log g = 7.60 +/- 0.05. We newly identified Fe VI, Ni VI, and Zn IV lines. For the first time, we determined the photospheric zinc abundance with a logarithmic mass fraction of -4.89 (7.5 times solar). The abundances of He (upper limit), C, N, O, Al, Si, O, P, S, Fe, Ni, Ge, and Sn were precisely determined. Upper abundance limits of 10% solar were derived for Ti, Cr, Mn, and Co. The TheoSSA database of theoretical SEDs of stellar flux standards guarantees that the flux calibration of all astronomical data and cross-calibration between different instruments can be based on the same models and SEDs calculated with different model-atmosphere codes and are easy to compare.Comment: 42 pages, 27 figure

IUE archived spectra

The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) Satellite has been in continuous operation since January 26, 1978. To date, approximately 65,000 spectra have been stored in an archive at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. A number of procedures have been generated to facilitate access to the data in the IUE spectral archive. This document describes the procedures which include on-line quick look of the displays, search of an observation data base for selected observations, and several methods for ordering data from the archive

Soft X-ray in-flight calibration of the ROSAT PSPC

We present an in-flight calibration of the ROSAT PSPC using the incident spectra of the hot white dwarf HZ43 and the polar AM Her. We derive an absolute flux calibration of the PSPC using the accurately known soft X-ray spectrum of HZ43. Corrections to the PSPC response matrix are derived from a comparison of predicted and observed PSPC spectra of HZ43, supplemented by results for AM Her. The calibration of the PSPC for photon energies E < 0.28 keV is found to be accurate to better than 5% refuting earlier reports of a major miscalibration. Our corrections to the detector response matrices remove systematic residuals in the pulse height spectra of soft sources.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Properties of solar polar coronal plumes constrained by Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer data

We investigate the plasma dynamics (outflow speed and turbulence) inside polar plumes. We compare line profiles (mainly of \ion{O}{6}) observed by the UVCS instrument on SOHO at the minimum of solar cycle 22-23 with model calculations. We consider Maxwellian velocity distributions with different widths in plume and inter-plume regions. Electron densities are assumed to be enhanced in plumes and to approach inter-plume values with increasing height. Different combinations of the outflow and turbulence velocity in the plume regions are considered. We compute line profiles and total intensities of the \ion{H}{1} Ly$\alpha$ and the \ion{O}{6} doublets. The observed profile shapes and intensities are reproduced best by a small solar wind speed at low altitudes in plumes that increases with height to reach ambient inter-plume values above roughly 3-4 R_\sun combined with a similar variation of the width of the velocity distribution of the scattering atoms/ions. We also find that plumes very close to the pole give narrow profiles at heights above 2.5 R_\sun, which are not observed. This suggests a tendency for plumes to be located away from the pole. We find that the inclusion of plumes in the model computations provides an improved correspondence with the observations and confirms previous results showing that published UVCS observations in polar coronal holes can be roughly reproduced without the need for large temperature anisotropy. The latitude distributions of plumes and magnetic flux distributions are studied by analyzing data from different instruments on SOHO and with SOLIS.Comment: 11 figure

Photometric Calibration of the Supernova Legacy Survey Fields

We present the photometric calibration of the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) fields. The SNLS aims at measuring the distances to SNe Ia at (0.3<z<1) using MegaCam, the 1 deg^2 imager on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The uncertainty affecting the photometric calibration of the survey dominates the systematic uncertainty of the key measurement of the survey, namely the dark energy equation of state. The photometric calibration of the SNLS requires obtaining a uniform response across the imager, calibrating the science field stars in each survey band (SDSS-like ugriz bands) with respect to standards with known flux in the same bands, and binding the calibration to the UBVRI Landolt standards used to calibrate the nearby SNe from the literature necessary to produce cosmological constraints. The spatial non-uniformities of the imager photometric response are mapped using dithered observations of dense stellar fields. Photometric zero-points against Landolt standards are obtained. The linearity of the instrument is studied. We show that the imager filters and photometric response are not uniform and publish correction maps. We present models of the effective passbands of the instrument as a function of the position on the focal plane. We define a natural magnitude system for MegaCam. We show that the systematics affecting the magnitude-to-flux relations can be reduced if we use the spectrophotometric standard star BD +17 4708 instead of Vega as a fundamental flux standard. We publish ugriz catalogs of tertiary standards for all the SNLS fields.Comment: 46 pages, 23 figures. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics. Online material available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/ or alternatively from: http://supernovae.in2p3.fr/snls3/regnault09_cds.tar.g

Estimating Forest Age and Site Productivity using Time Series of 3D Remote Sensing Data

ABSTRACT Three-dimensional (3D) data about forest captured by airborne laser scanning (ALS) have revolutionized forest management planning. Accurate, updated large-scale maps of forest variables produced with low costs today support greatly improved decisions about silvicultural treatments compared to the past practice based on field surveyed data only. These maps usually lack important information about forest age and site productivity, as this cannot be accurately assessed from the available ALS data. In Sweden, ALS has recently been performed nation-wide, except the mountainous area, to produce a new and accurate digital terrain model (DTM). This DTM enables extremely costefficient extraction of 3D data about the forest from other sources than ALS, such as automatic stereo-matching of aerial images as well as from single-pass spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). In contrast to ALS, these data sources can provide low-cost time-series of 3D data. Aerial images of Sweden are often available in archives back to approximately 1960, and the TanDEM-X SAR system has the potential to provide new data every second week over large areas. These data have a potentially high value for forest management planning, since they may provide missing and highly important information -forest site productivity, Site Index (SI) and forest age. This pilot study explores a least-squares minimization approach to estimate forest age and SI from time series of 3D data produced by 1) image matching of DMC aerial images, and 2) TanDEM-X SAR data

How to relate the oscillator and Coulomb systems on spheres and pseudospheres?

We show that the oscillators on a sphere and pseudosphere are related, by the so-called Bohlin transformation, with the Coulomb systems on the pseudosphere: the even states of an oscillator yields the conventional Coulomb system on pseudosphere, while the odd states yield the Coulomb system on pseudosphere in the presence of magnetic flux tube generating half spin. In the higher dimensions the oscillator and Coulomb(-like) systems are connected in the similar way. In particular, applying the Kustaanheimo-Stiefel transformation to the oscillators on sphere and pseudosphere, we obtained the preudospherical generalization of MIC-Kepler problem describing three-dimensional charge-dyon system.Comment: 12 pages, Based on talk given at XXIII Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics (July 31-August 5, 2000, Dubna