CASIMIR: The Caltech Airborne Submillimeter Interstellar Medium Investigations Receiver

Author

Edgar, Michael L. ; Harris, Andrew I. ; Karpov, Alexandre ; Lin, Sean ; Miller, David ; Radford, Simon J E ; Rice, Frank ; Zmuidzinas, Jonas

Author_Institution

California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA

fYear

2008

fDate

15-19 Sept. 2008

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

CASIMIR, the Caltech Airborne Submillimeter Interstellar Medium Investigations Receiver, is a far infrared and submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer under development for the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA. CASIMIR will carry out observations in the frequency range from 500 GHz up to 1.4 THz, with extremely high spectral resolution, of order 10⁶. Capitalizing on recent advances in SIS mixer development, CASIMIR will cover this region of the spectrum with unprecedented sensitivity. CASIMIR is extremely well suited to observe the warm, ~100 K, interstellar medium, particularly water lines, in both Galactic and extragalactic sources.

Keywords

astronomical instruments; heterodyne detection; infrared spectrometers; interstellar matter; submillimetre astronomy; submillimetre wave receivers; CASIMIR; Caltech airborne submillimeter interstellar medium investigation receiver; SIS mixer; extragalactic sources; far infrared spectrometer; frequency 500 GHz to 1.4 THz; interstellar medium; submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer; water lines; water lines sources; Astronomy; Frequency; Infrared spectra; Instruments; Optical mixing; Optical receivers; Optical sensors; Space technology; Spectroscopy; Telescopes;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves, 2008. IRMMW-THz 2008. 33rd International Conference on

Conference_Location

Pasadena, CA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2119-0

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2120-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIMW.2008.4665439

Filename

4665439