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The photodetector array camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the herschel space observatory

  • A. Poglitsch
  • , C. Waelkens
  • , N. Geis
  • , H. Feuchtgruber
  • , B. Van Den Bussche
  • , L. Rodriguez
  • , O. Krause
  • , E. Renotte
  • , C. Van Hoof
  • , P. Saraceno
  • , J. Cepa
  • , F. Kerschbaum
  • , P. Agnèse
  • , B. Ali
  • , B. Altieri
  • , P. Andreani
  • , J. L. Augueres
  • , Z. Balog
  • , L. Barl
  • , O. H. Bauer
  • N. Belbachir, M. Benedettini, N. Billot, O. Boulade, H. Bischof, J. Blommaert, E. Callut, C. Cara, R. Cerulli, D. Cesarsky, A. Contursi, Y. Creten, W. De Meester, V. Doublier, E. Doumayrou, L. Duband, K. Exter, R. Genzel, J. M. Gillis, U. Grözinger, T. Henning, J. Herreros, R. Huygen, M. Inguscio, G. Jakob, C. Jamar, C. Jean, J. De Jong, R. Katterloher, C. Kiss, U. Klaas, D. Lemke, D. Lutz, S. Madden, B. Marquet, J. Martignac, A. Mazy, P. Merken, F. Montfort, L. Morbidelli, T. Müller, M. Nielbock, K. Okumura, R. Orfei, R. Ottensamer, S. Pezzuto, P. Popesso, J. Putzeys, S. Regibo, V. Reveret, P. Royer, M. Sauvage, J. Schreiber, J. Stegmaier, D. Schmitt, J. Schubert, E. Sturm, M. Thiel, G. Tofani, R. Vavrek, M. Wetzstein, E. Wieprecht, E. Wiezorrek
  • MPE
  • KU Leuven
  • Orme des Merisiers
  • MPIA
  • Université de Liège
  • IMEC
  • Istituto di Fisica dello spazio Interplanetario
  • Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
  • Institut für Astronomie der Universität Wien
  • Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA)
  • NASA Herschel Science Center
  • Urbanización Villafranca Del Castillo
  • European Southern Observatory
  • Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
  • AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
  • Technische Universität Graz
  • LENS - European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy
  • Konkoly Observatory
  • Osservatorio Astrofisico Di Arcetri

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2104 Citations (Scopus)

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 16×25 pixels, each, and two filled silicon bolometer arrays with 16×32 and 32×64 pixels, respectively, to perform integral-field spectroscopy and imaging photometry in the 60-210 μm wavelength regime. In photometry mode, it simultaneously images two bands, 60-85 μm or 85-125 μm and 125-210 μm, over a field of view of ∼1.75'× 3.5', with close to Nyquist beam sampling in each band. In spectroscopy mode, it images a field of 47" × 47", resolved into 5×5 pixels, with an instantaneous spectral coverage of ∼1500 km s-1 and a spectral resolution of ∼175 km s-1. 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberL2
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume518
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Keywords

  • instrumentation: photometers
  • instrumentation: spectrographs
  • space vehicles: instruments

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