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PACS
The Photodetector Array
Camera and Spectrometer for Herschel
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PACS Focal Plane Unit: Fully assembled Qualification Model
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PACS Focal Plane Unit: Optical layout
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PACS is one of three science instruments for ESA's Herschel
Space Observatory. It operates either as an imaging photometer
or an integral field spectrometer over the spectral band from
57 to 210 μm.
PACS is being designed and built by a consortium of institutes and
university departments from across Europe under the leadership of
Principal Investigator Albrecht Poglitsch located at
Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Garching, Germany.
Consortium members are: Austria: UVIE; Belgium: IMEC, KUL, CSL;
France: CEA, OAMP; Germany: MPE, MPIA; Italy: IFSI, OAP/OAT, OAA/CAISMI, LENS, SISSA;
Spain: IAC.
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Principal Investigator:
Albrect Poglitsch,
Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik
Co-Principal Investigators:
Christoffel Waelkens, KU Leuven, Belgium
Instrument Control Center:
PACS-ICC - operational
nerve center and Project Office site at the PI institute in Garching, Germany
Imaging Capabilities:
- Simultaneous two-band (same field of view) 60-85 μm or 85-130 μm
and 130-210 μm imaging
- Two filled bolometer arrays: 32x16 and 64x32 pixels
- Point source sensitivity: ~3 mJy (5-sigma limit in 1 hour)
Spectroscopy Capabilities:
- Simultaneous 57-105 μm and 105-210 μm spectroscopy
- 47"x47" (5x5 pixels) field-of-view rearranged via an image
slicer on two 16x25 Ge:Ga detector arrays
- Sensitivity: ~5x10^-18 W/m^2 (5-sigma in 1 hour)
Observing modes: are currently under development.
Observation Planning and Proposal Submission Tools: available in
Herschel-SPOT (HSPOT), adapted from the Spitzer Planning and Observation
Tool by arrangement between the NHSC, the Spitzer Science Center, and the
HSC.
Data Access and Processing:
The Herschel data archive will be hosted
at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (formerly Vilspa) in Villafranca
del Castillo, Spain. Users of the ISO, XMM, and IUE archives will be
familiar with this location. Unlike the ISO data processing piplines,
however, which were based variously on fortran, IDL, and C, the Herschel
Standard Product Generation software is being implemented in java, based
on development in the interactive Data Processing (DP) environment of the
exportable Herschel Common Software System (HCSS). Data processing
in the HCSS is also rooted in the object-oriented java language, with
Jython scripting cabilities in the user interface. The PACS interactive
DP environment is part of the HCSS, and is being used during pre-launch instrument
tests and then during operations by calibration scientists. The HCSS
and its instrument DP environments will be available to users.
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PACS is designed to address a wide range of key questions concerning
the origins of stars, planetary systems, galaxies, and the
evolution of the Universe.
Visit the
PACS science page
at the PACS ICC.
A publicly available available PACS Science requirements document can be found
here.
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Our Tasks The NHSC
has a growing group of scientists and developers dedicated to supporting US
astronomers who anticipate making use of PACS in guaranteed and open time
science programs. However, we are not (or not only) an observer
support group for information relay. Effecitve support comes from participating
in the pre-launch preparations, check-out, and routine maintenance activities
in calibration scientist and software developer roles, in agreement with and
coordination by the PACS ICC "primary node". This includes as many phases
as our staff can manage with time and travel, particpating in uplink development
(observing modes, observation planning software), basic data processing,
scientific analysis software development, instrument testing and performance
verification. Since our scientists also anticipate using PACS in Open Time
Key Programs, they can be relied upon to provide the highest
quality support in program preparation, observation planning, and data
access, processing and management, with specific attention to needs of
the US astronomical community.
In addition to NHSC's helpdesk
system, these pages will provide PACS-related information about observation
planning and data processing workshops, a frequenly asked questions page,
a wiki-based web collaboration between PACS users (according to need and interest),
and pathways to additional documentation and scientific resources. These
will appear in time leading up to the Announcement of Opportunity for Open
Time Key Programs.
Who We Are
Babar Ali - Liason Scientist, group lead
Dario Fadda - Liason Scientist
Phil Appleton - PACS scientist
Dave Frayer - PACS scientist
Jeff Jacobson - PACS developer
Cate Liu - PACS developer
We also receive valuable assistance and
guidance in system architecture and infrastructure from John Rector and Jonathan
Kakumasu.
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