TY - JOUR
T1 - The Infrared Camera (IRC) for AKARI - Design and imaging performance
AU - Onaka, Takashi
AU - Matsuhara, Hideo
AU - Wada, Takehiko
AU - Fujishiro, Naofumi
AU - Fujiwara, Hideaki
AU - Ishigaki, Miho
AU - Ishihara, Daisuke
AU - Ita, Yoshifusa
AU - Kataza, Hirokazu
AU - Kim, Woojung
AU - Matsumoto, Toshio
AU - Murakami, Hiroshi
AU - Ohyama, Youichi
AU - Oyabu, Shinki
AU - Sakon, Itsuki
AU - Tanabé, Toshihiko
AU - Takagi, Toshinobu
AU - Uemizu, Kazunori
AU - Ueno, Munetaka
AU - Usui, Fumio
AU - Watarai, Hidenori
AU - Cohen, Martin
AU - Enya, Keigo
AU - Ootsubo, Takafumi
AU - Pearson, Chris P.
AU - Takeyama, Norihide
AU - Yamamuro, Tomoyasu
AU - Ikeda, Yuji
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - The Infrared Camera (IRC) is one of two focal-plane instruments on the AKARI satellite. It is designed for wide-field deep imaging and low-resolution spectroscopy in the near- to mid-infrared (1.8-26.5 μm) in the pointed observation mode of AKARI. The IRC is also operated in the survey mode to make an All-Sky Survey at 9 and 18 μm. It comprises three channels. The NIR channel (1.8-5.5 μm) employs a 512 × 412 InSb array, whereas both the MIR-S (4.6-13.4 μm) and MIR-L (12.6-26.5 μm) channels use 256 × 256 Si:As impurity band conduction arrays. Each of the three channels has a field-of-view of about 10′ × 10′, and they are operated simultaneously. The NIR and MIR-S share the same field-of-view by virtue of a beam splitter. The MIR-L observes the sky about 25′ away from the NIR/MIR-S field-of-view. The IRC gives us deep insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies, the evolution of planetary disks, the process of star-formation, the properties of interstellar matter under various physical conditions, and the nature and evolution of solar system objects. The in-flight performance of the IRC has been confirmed to be in agreement with the pre-flight expectation. This paper summarizes the design and the in-flight operation and imaging performance of the IRC.
AB - The Infrared Camera (IRC) is one of two focal-plane instruments on the AKARI satellite. It is designed for wide-field deep imaging and low-resolution spectroscopy in the near- to mid-infrared (1.8-26.5 μm) in the pointed observation mode of AKARI. The IRC is also operated in the survey mode to make an All-Sky Survey at 9 and 18 μm. It comprises three channels. The NIR channel (1.8-5.5 μm) employs a 512 × 412 InSb array, whereas both the MIR-S (4.6-13.4 μm) and MIR-L (12.6-26.5 μm) channels use 256 × 256 Si:As impurity band conduction arrays. Each of the three channels has a field-of-view of about 10′ × 10′, and they are operated simultaneously. The NIR and MIR-S share the same field-of-view by virtue of a beam splitter. The MIR-L observes the sky about 25′ away from the NIR/MIR-S field-of-view. The IRC gives us deep insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies, the evolution of planetary disks, the process of star-formation, the properties of interstellar matter under various physical conditions, and the nature and evolution of solar system objects. The in-flight performance of the IRC has been confirmed to be in agreement with the pre-flight expectation. This paper summarizes the design and the in-flight operation and imaging performance of the IRC.
KW - Infrared: general
KW - Instrumentation: detectors
KW - Space vehicles: instruments
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=36849070988&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=36849070988&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/pasj/59.sp2.s401
DO - 10.1093/pasj/59.sp2.s401
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:36849070988
SN - 0004-6264
VL - 59
SP - S401-S410
JO - Publication of the Astronomical Society of Japan
JF - Publication of the Astronomical Society of Japan
IS - SPEC. ISS. 2
ER -