Stability of the Infrared Array Camera for the Spitzer Space Telescope
Abstract
We present an analysis of the stability of the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope over the first 4.5 years of in-flight operations. IRAC consists of two InSb and two Si:As 256x256 imaging arrays with passbands centered on 3.6, 4.5. 5.8 and 8.0 microns. Variations in photometric stability, read noise, dark offsets, pixel responsivity and number of hot and noisy pixels for each detector array are trended with time. To within our measurement uncertainty, the performance of the IRAC arrays has not changed with time. The most significant variation is that number of hot pixels in the 8 micron array has increased linearly with time at a rate of 60 pixels per year. We expect that the 3.6 and 4.5 micron arrays should remain stable during the post-cryogenic phase of the Spitzer mission. We will briefly discuss some science that is enabled by the excellent stability of IRAC.
Additional Information
© 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The authors acknowledge the efforts of our colleagues in the IRAC instrument and instrument support teams in maintaining and characterizing the IRAC instrument. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech.Attached Files
Published - 70102V.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 95547
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190516-140257141
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Created
-
2019-05-16Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 7010