Abstract
We present a flux calibration scheme for the PACS chopped point-source photometry observing mode based on the photometry of five stellar standard sources. This mode was used for science observations only early in the mission. Later, it was only used for pointing and flux calibration measurements. Its calibration turns this type of observation into fully validated data products in the Herschel Science Archive. Systematic differences in calibration with regard to the principal photometer observation mode, the scan map, are derived and amount to 5 − 6 %. An empirical method to calibrate out an apparent response drift during the first 300 Operational Days is presented. The relative photometric calibration accuracy (repeatability) is as good as 1 % in the blue and green band and up to 5 % in the red band. Like for the scan map mode, inconsistencies among the stellar calibration models become visible and amount to 2 % for the five standard stars used. The absolute calibration accuracy is therefore mainly limited by the model uncertainty, which is 5 % for all three bands.
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Notes
PACS has been developed by a consortium of institutes led by MPE (Germany) and including UVIE (Austria); KU Leuven, CSL, IMEC (Belgium); CEA, LAM (France); MPIA (Germany); INAF-IFSI/OAA/OAP/OAT, LENS, SISSA (Italy); IAC (Spain). This development has been supported by the funding agencies BMVIT (Austria), ESA-PRODEX (Belgium), CEA/CNES (France), DLR (Germany), ASI/INAF (Italy), and CICYT/MCYT (Spain).
Model spectra are available at: ftp://ftp.ster.kuleuven.be/dist/pacs/calsources
This is the defined zero point of the International Atomic Time (TAI) standard.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the anonymous referee for the constructive report on the submitted manuscript. We also would like to thank J. Blommaert (KUL) for providing helpful comments. Z. Balog, H. Linz and M. Nielbock are funded by the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V.
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Appendices
Appendix A: List of observations
Appendix B: Photometry of observations
Appendix C: HIPE tasks
1.1 C.1 Flux correction
1.2 C.2 Time of observation in FineTime
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Nielbock, M., Müller, T., Klaas, U. et al. The Herschel PACS photometer calibration. Exp Astron 36, 631–660 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-013-9348-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-013-9348-z