SPIRE

SPIRE will be one of three instruments on ESA's Herschel Space Observatory (formally known as FIRST).

It features an imaging photometer and an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer.

It is being developed by a consortium of European and American scientists, led by PI Professor Matt Griffin at the Physics and Astronomy Department of Cardiff University.

The US is playing a crucial role in SPIRE by contributing its detector arrays. These are the so-called "Spider Web Bolometers" developed by SPIRE Co-I Jamie Bock at JPL. This type of detector, which will also be used by the Planck/ HFI, has been successfully used in many, previously successful experiments -- most notably making the BOOMERANG detection of anisotropy in the CMB possible.

Essential information about the SPIRE instrument is summarized in a flyer.

          o Simultaneous observations in 3 bands
          o 139, 88, and 43 pixels
          o Wavelengths (μm): 250, 350, 500
          o λ/Δ λ ~ 3
          o Beam FWHM (arcsec): 18, 25, 36
          o Field of view (arcmin) 4 x 8

Estimated Photometer Sensitivities



Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS)

          o Simultaneous imaging observation of the whole spectral band
          o 37 and 19 pixels
          o Wavelength Range (μm): 194-672
          o λ/Δ λ = 1289-372, 206-60, 52-15 (variable)
          o Field of view: 2.6' circular diameter, beams 16", 34"

Estimated Spectrometer Sensitivities