44 research outputs found
Calibration of <i>Herschel</i> SPIRE FTS observations at different spectral resolutions
The SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer on-board the Herschel Space Observatory had two standard spectral resolution modes for science observations: high resolution (HR) and low resolution (LR), which could also be performed in sequence (H+LR). A comparison of the HR and LR resolution spectra taken in this sequential mode revealed a systematic discrepancy in the continuum level. Analysing the data at different stages during standard pipeline processing demonstrates that the telescope and instrument emission affect HR and H+LR observations in a systematically different way. The origin of this difference is found to lie in the variation of both the telescope and instrument response functions, while it is triggered by fast variation of the instrument temperatures. As it is not possible to trace the evolution of the response functions using housekeeping data from the instrument subsystems, the calibration cannot be corrected analytically. Therefore, an empirical correction for LR spectra has been developed, which removes the systematic noise introduced by the variation of the response functions
Systematic characterisation of the Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer
A systematic programme of calibration observations was carried out to monitor
the performance of the SPIRE FTS instrument on board the Herschel Space
Observatory. Observations of planets (including the prime point-source
calibrator, Uranus), asteroids, line sources, dark sky, and cross-calibration
sources were made in order to monitor repeatability and sensitivity, and to
improve FTS calibration. We present a complete analysis of the full set of
calibration observations and use them to assess the performance of the FTS.
Particular care is taken to understand and separate out the effect of pointing
uncertainties, including the position of the internal beam steering mirror for
sparse observations in the early part of the mission. The repeatability of
spectral line centre positions is <5km/s, for lines with signal-to-noise ratios
>40, corresponding to <0.5-2.0% of a resolution element. For spectral line
flux, the repeatability is better than 6%, which improves to 1-2% for spectra
corrected for pointing offsets. The continuum repeatability is 4.4% for the SLW
band and 13.6% for the SSW band, which reduces to ~1% once the data have been
corrected for pointing offsets. Observations of dark sky were used to assess
the sensitivity and the systematic offset in the continuum, both of which were
found to be consistent across the FTS detector arrays. The average point-source
calibrated sensitivity for the centre detectors is 0.20 and 0.21 Jy [1 sigma; 1
hour], for SLW and SSW. The average continuum offset is 0.40 Jy for the SLW
band and 0.28 Jy for the SSW band.Comment: 41 pages, 37 figures, 32 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Calibration of the Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer
The Herschel SPIRE instrument consists of an imaging photometric camera and
an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), both operating over a
frequency range of 450-1550 GHz. In this paper, we briefly review the FTS
design, operation, and data reduction, and describe in detail the approach
taken to relative calibration (removal of instrument signatures) and absolute
calibration against standard astronomical sources. The calibration scheme
assumes a spatially extended source and uses the Herschel telescope as primary
calibrator. Conversion from extended to point-source calibration is carried out
using observations of the planet Uranus. The model of the telescope emission is
shown to be accurate to within 6% and repeatable to better than 0.06% and, by
comparison with models of Mars and Neptune, the Uranus model is shown to be
accurate to within 3%. Multiple observations of a number of point-like sources
show that the repeatability of the calibration is better than 1%, if the
effects of the satellite absolute pointing error (APE) are corrected. The
satellite APE leads to a decrement in the derived flux, which can be up to ~10%
(1 sigma) at the high-frequency end of the SPIRE range in the first part of the
mission, and ~4% after Herschel operational day 1011. The lower frequency range
of the SPIRE band is unaffected by this pointing error due to the larger beam
size. Overall, for well-pointed, point-like sources, the absolute flux
calibration is better than 6%, and for extended sources where mapping is
required it is better than 7%.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Correcting the extended-source calibration for the <i>Herschel</i>-SPIRE Fourier-transform spectrometer
We describe an update to the Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) calibration for extended sources, which incorporates a correction for the frequency-dependent far-field feedhorn efficiency, ηff. This significant correction affects all FTS extended-source calibrated spectra in sparse or mapping mode, regardless of the spectral resolution. Line fluxes and continuum levels are underestimated by factors of 1.3â2 in thespectrometer long wavelength band (447â1018 GHz; 671â294 ÎŒm) and 1.4â1.5 in the spectrometer short wavelength band (944â1568 GHz; 318â191 ÎŒm). The correction was implemented in the FTS pipeline version 14.1 and has also been described in the SPIRE Handbook since 2017 February. Studies based on extended-source calibrated spectra produced prior to this pipeline version should be critically reconsidered using the current products available in the Herschel Science Archive. Once the extended-source calibrated spectra are corrected for ηff, the synthetic photometry and the broad-band intensities from SPIRE photometer maps agree within 2â4âperâcent â similar levels to the comparison of point-source calibrated spectra and photometry from point-source calibrated maps. The two calibration schemes for the FTS are now self-consistent: the conversion between the corrected extended-source and point-source calibrated spectra can be achieved with the beam solid angle and a gain correction that accounts for the diffraction loss
Physical structure of the photodissociation regions in NGC 7023: Observations of gas and dust emission with <i>Herschel</i>
The determination of the physical conditions in molecular clouds is a key step towards our understanding of their formation and evolution of associated star formation. We investigate the density, temperature, and column density of both dust and gas in the photodissociation regions (PDRs) located at the interface between the atomic and cold molecular gas of the NGC 7023 reflection nebula. We study how young stars affect the gas and dust in their environment. Our approach combining both dust and gas delivers strong constraints on the physical conditions of the PDRs. We find dense and warm molecular gas of high column density in the PDRs
The Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer Spectral Feature Finder I. The Spectral Feature Finder and Catalogue
We provide a detailed description of the Herschel-SPIRE Fourier Transform
Spectrometer (FTS) Spectral Feature Finder (FF). The FF is an automated process
designed to extract significant spectral features from SPIRE FTS data products.
Optimising the number of features found in SPIRE-FTS spectra is challenging.
The wide SPIRE-FTS frequency range (447-1568 GHz) leads to many molecular
species and atomic fine structure lines falling within the observed bands. As
the best spectral resolution of the SPIRE-FTS is ~1.2 GHz, there can be
significant line blending, depending on the source type. In order to find, both
efficiently and reliably, features in spectra associated with a wide range of
sources, the FF iteratively searches for peaks over a number of signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) thresholds. For each threshold, newly identified features are
rigorously checked before being added to the fitting model. At the end of each
iteration, the FF simultaneously fits the continuum and features found, with
the resulting residual spectrum used in the next iteration. The final FF
products report the frequency of the features found and the associated SNRs.
Line flux determination is not included as part of the FF products, as
extracting reliable line flux from SPIRE-FTS data is a complex process that
requires careful evaluation and analysis of the spectra on a case-by-case
basis. The FF results are 100% complete for features with SNR greater than 10
and 50-70% complete at SNR of 5. The FF code and all FF products are publicly
available via the Herschel Science Archive.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables, final version accepted by MNRAS June
202
In-orbit performance of the Herschel/SPIRE imaging Fourier transform spectrometer: lessons learned
The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) is one of three scientific instruments on board the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory which ended its operational phase on 29 April 2013. The low to medium resolution spectroscopic capability of SPIRE is provided by an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer (iFTS) of the Mach-Zehnder configuration. With their high throughput, broad spectral coverage, and variable resolution, coupled with their well-defined instrumental line shape and intrinsic wavelength and intensity calibration, iFTS are becoming increasingly common in far-infrared space astronomy missions. The performance of the SPIRE imaging spectrometer will be reviewed and example results presented. The lessons learned from the measured performance of the spectrometer as they apply to future missions will be discussed