Flight performance of the Far-Infrared Photometer (FIRP)

Takanori Hirao; Toshio Matsumoto; Shuji Sato; Ken Ganga; Andrew E. Lange; Beverly J. Smith; Minoru M. Freund

doi:10.1117/12.255189

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21 October 1996 Flight performance of the Far-Infrared Photometer (FIRP)

Takanori Hirao; Toshio Matsumoto; Shuji Sato; Ken Ganga; Andrew E. Lange; Beverly J. Smith; Minoru M. Freund

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Proceedings Volume 2817, Infrared Spaceborne Remote Sensing IV; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.255189
Event: SPIE's 1996 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1996, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

We present the flight performance of the far infrared photometer (FIRP) onboard the infrared telescope in space (IRTS). The FIRP was designed to measure the absolute sky brightness in four submillimeter wavelength bands centered on 150, 250, 400, and 700 micrometer with a spectral resolution of lambda/(Delta) (lambda) equals 3, and with spatial resolution of 0.5 degrees. The bolometers were cooled to 300 mK by a ³He refrigerator, and an ac bridge readout circuit was used to achieve high sensitivity. The ³He refrigerator achieved a temperature of approximately 300 mK during each of three ³He condensations carried out in orbit. The hold time was confirmed to be at least 7 days per cycle. We observed approximately 7% of the sky during a mission time of 3 weeks. Some excess noise was observed in most of the channels. Adequate sensitivity was achieved in all channels for observations at low galactic latitudes, where emission from interstellar dust is relatively bright. The preliminary sensitivities (60 sec integration, 1 (sigma) ) are estimated to be 7.7 multiplied by 10^-7, 3.1 multiplied by 10^-8, 7.7 multiplied by 10^-8, and 3.7 multiplied by 10^-8 Wm^-2sr^-1 for the 150, 250, 400, and 700 micrometer channels, respectively.

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Takanori Hirao, Toshio Matsumoto, Shuji Sato, Ken Ganga, Andrew E. Lange, Beverly J. Smith, and Minoru M. Freund "Flight performance of the Far-Infrared Photometer (FIRP)", Proc. SPIE 2817, Infrared Spaceborne Remote Sensing IV, (21 October 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.255189

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