Herschel/HIFI In-flight commissioning and performance
Paper in proceeding, 2010

The Herschel Space Observatory was successfully launched on the 14th of May, 2009, lifting into space the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI). After the standard early orbit operations on the Space-craft, the instrument was switched on for the first time on the 24th of May, kicking off an instrument Commissioning period of more than a month and a half. We present here the outcome of this Commissioning campaign, including the measured in-flight performance of the instrument. Among the challenges encountered during this period was the need to optimize the stability of the signal provided by the Local Oscillator (LO) chains in some of the frequency bands, in particular that covering the singly Ionized Carbon (C+) line at the upper edge of the HIFI range, and one of the backbones of the science program of the instrument. The same concept also allowed significant improvements in the upper end of the 3b LO chain. Another noticeable achievement was the very good co-alignment measured between the mixer beams in the respective H and V polarizations offered by HIFI, allowing for more than a simple build-in redundancy, as the observing efficiency will really benefits from the combination of the two mixers.

Herschel space observatories

Local oscillators

Build-in redundancy

Heterodyne instruments

In-flight performance

Mixers (machinery)

Optimize the stabilities

C (programming language)

Chains

Instrument commissioning

Frequency bands

Observing efficiency

Instruments

Author

D. Teyssier

European Space Agency (ESA)

C. Risacher

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

P. Dieleman

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

W. Laauwen

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

A. de Jonge

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

J. Braine

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux

M. Caris

Max Planck Society

O. Coeur-Joly

University of Toulouse

B. Delforge

LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique et Atmospheres

F. Helmich

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

F. Herpin

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux

R. Higgins

Maynooth University

W. Jellema

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

T. Klein

Max Planck Society

J. Kooi

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

C. Leinz

Max Planck Society

K. Edwards

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

A. P. Marston

European Space Agency (ESA)

P. Morris

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Michael Olberg

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Onsala Space Observatory

Other publications Research

V. Ossenkopf

University of Cologne

J. C. Pearson

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

P. Roelfsema

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

R. Shipman

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

21st International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology 2010, ISSTT 2010; Oxford; United Kingdom; 23 March 2010 through 25 March 2010

23-28
978-161782362-6 (ISBN)

Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

ISBN

978-161782362-6

More information

Latest update

4/23/2025

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