The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory
Abstract
The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) is one of the three science instruments on ESA's far infrared and submillimetre observatory. It employs two Ge:Ga photoconductor arrays (stressed and unstressed) with 16x25 pixels, each, and two filled silicon bolometer arrays with 16x32 and 32x64 pixels, respectively, to perform integral-field spectroscopy and imaging photometry in the 60-210\mu\ m wavelength regime. In photometry mode, it simultaneously images two bands, 60-85\mu\ m or 85-125\mu\m and 125-210\mu\ m, over a field of view of ~1.75'x3.5', with close to Nyquist beam sampling in each band. In spectroscopy mode, it images a field of 47"x47", resolved into 5x5 pixels, with an instantaneous spectral coverage of ~1500km/s and a spectral resolution of ~175km/s. We summarise the design of the instrument, describe observing modes, calibration, and data analysis methods, and present our current assessment of the in-orbit performance of the instrument based on the Performance Verification tests. PACS is fully operational, and the achieved performance is close to or better than the pre-launch predictions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1005.1487,
title = {The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory},
author = {A. Poglitsch and C. Waelkens and N. Geis and H. Feuchtgruber and B. Vandenbussche and L. Rodriguez and O. Krause and E. Renotte and C. van Hoof and P. Saraceno and J. Cepa and F. Kerschbaum and P. Agnese and B. Ali and B. Altieri and P. Andreani and J. -L. Augueres and Z. Balog and L. Barl and O. H. Bauer and N. Belbachir and M. Benedettini and N. Billot and O. Boulade and H. Bischof and J. Blommaert and E. Callut and C. Cara and R. Cerulli and D. Cesarsky and A. Contursi and Y. Creten and W. De Meester and V. Doublier and E. Doumayrou and L. Duband and K. Exter and R. Genzel and J. -M. Gillis and U. Grözinger and T. Henning and J. Herreros and R. Huygen and M. Inguscio and G. Jakob and C. Jamar and C. Jean and J. de Jong and R. Katterloher and C. Kiss and U. Klaas and D. Lemke and D. Lutz and S. Madden and B. Marquet and J. Martignac and A. Mazy and P. Merken and F. Montfort and L. Morbidelli and T. Müller and M. Nielbock and K. Okumura and R. Orfei and R. Ottensamer and S. Pezzuto and P. Popesso and J. Putzeys and S. Regibo and V. Reveret and P. Royer and M. Sauvage and J. Schreiber and J. Stegmaier and D. Schmitt and J. Schubert and E. Sturm and M. Thiel and G. Tofani and R. Vavrek and M. Wetzstein and E. Wieprecht and E. Wiezorrek},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.1487},
year = {2015}
}