The Infrared Camera (IRC) for AKARIa€“Design and Imaging Performance

摘要

TheInfraredCamera(IRC)isoneoftwofocal-planeinstrumentsontheAKARIsatellite.Itisdesignedforwide-fielddeepimagingandlow-resolutionspectroscopyintheneara€“tomid-infrared(1.8a€“26.5$$mu$$m)inthepointedobservationmodeofAKARI.TheIRCisalsooperatedinthesurveymodetomakeanAll-SkySurveyat9and18$$mu$$m.Itcomprisesthreechannels.TheNIRchannel(1.8a€“5.5$$mu$$m)employsa512$$ imes$$412InSbarray,whereasboththeMIR-S(4.6a€“13.4$$mu$$m)andMIR-L(12.6a€“26.5$$mu$$m)channelsuse256$$ imes$$256Si:Asimpuritybandconductionarrays.Eachofthethreechannelshasafield-of-viewofabout$$10^prime imes10^prime$$,andtheyareoperatedsimultaneously.TheNIRandMIR-Ssharethesamefield-of-viewbyvirtueofabeamsplitter.TheMIR-Lobservestheskyabout25$$^prime$$awayfromtheNIR/MIR-Sfield-of-view.TheIRCgivesusdeepinsightsintotheformationandevolutionofgalaxies,theevolutionofplanetarydisks,theprocessofstar-formation,thepropertiesofinterstellarmatterundervariousphysicalconditions,andthenatureandevolutionofsolarsystemobjects.Thein-flightperformanceoftheIRChasbeenconfirmedtobeinagreementwiththepre-flightexpectation.Thispapersummarizesthedesignandthein-flightoperationandimagingperformanceoftheIRC.