Astronomical imaging Fourier spectroscopy at far-infrared wavelengths

Abstract

The principles and practice of astronomical imaging Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTS) at far-infrared wavelengths are described. The Mach-Zehnder interferometer design has been widely adopted for current and future imaging FTS instruments; we compare this design with two other common interferometer formats. Examples of three instruments based on the Mach-Zehnder design are presented. The techniques for retrieving astrophysical parameters from the measured spectra are discussed using calibration data obtained with the Herschel SPIRE instrument. The paper concludes with an example of imaging spectroscopy obtained with the SPIRE FTS instrument.

10 pages; 9 figures. Accepted for publication in the Canadian Journal of Physics. v2: minor typographical changes to match published version

References in corpus (3)

• The James Webb Space Telescope
• SCUBA-2: The 10000 pixel bolometer camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
• {Millimeter Multiplicity in NGC 6334 I and I(N)

Cited by in corpus (2)

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• Development and validation of a cryogenic far-infrared diffraction grating spectrometer used to post-disperse the output from a Fourier transform spectrometer