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We discuss the methods employed to photometrically calibrate the data acquired by the Low Frequency Instrument on Planck. Our calibration is based on a combination of the Orbital Dipole plus the Solar Dipole, caused respectively by the motion of the Planck spacecraft with respect to the Sun and by motion of the Solar System with respect to the CMB rest frame. The latter provides a signal of a few mK with the same spectrum as the CMB anisotropies and is visible throughout the mission. In this data release we rely on the characterization of the Solar Dipole as measured by WMAP. We also present preliminary results (at 44GHz only) on the study of the Orbital Dipole, which agree with the WMAP value of the Solar System speed within our uncertainties. We compute the calibration constant for each radiometer roughly once per hour, in order to keep track of changes in the detectors gain. Since non-idealities in the optical response of the beams proved to be important, we implemented a fast convolution algorithm which considers the full beam response in estimating the signal generated by the dipole. Moreover, in order to further reduce the impact of residual systematics due to sidelobes, we estimated time variations in the calibration constant of the 30GHz radiometers (the ones with the largest sidelobes) using the signal of a reference load. We have estimated the calibration accuracy in two ways: we have run a set of simulations to assess the impact of statistical errors and systematic effects in the instrument and in the calibration procedure, and we have performed a number of consistency checks on the data and on the brightness temperature of Jupiter. Calibration errors for this data release are expected to be about 0.6% at 44 and 70 GHz, and 0.8% at 30 GHz. (Abriged.)
We present a description of the pipeline used to calibrate the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) timelines into thermodynamic temperatures for the Planck 2015 data release, covering four years of uninterrupted operations. As in the 2013 data release, our calibrator is provided by the spin-synchronous modulation of the cosmic microwave background dipole, but we now use the orbital component, rather than adopting the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) solar dipole. This allows our 2015 LFI analysis to provide an independent Solar dipole estimate, which is in excellent agreement with that of HFI and within $1sigma$ (0.3% in amplitude) of the WMAP value. This 0.3% shift in the peak-to-peak dipole temperature from WMAP and a global overhaul of the iterative calibration code increases the overall level of the LFI maps by 0.45% (30 GHz), 0.64% (44 GHz), and 0.82% (70 GHz) in temperature with respect to the 2013 Planck data release, thus reducing the discrepancy with the power spectrum measured by WMAP. We estimate that the LFI calibration uncertainty is now at the level of 0.20% for the 70 GHz map, 0.26% for the 44 GHz map, and 0.35% for the 30 GHz map. We provide a detailed description of the impact of all the changes implemented in the calibration since the previous data release.
We present the current estimate of instrumental and systematic effect uncertainties for the Planck-Low Frequency Instrument relevant to the first release of the Planck cosmological results. We give an overview of the main effects and of the tools and methods applied to assess residuals in maps and power spectra. We also present an overall budget of known systematic effect uncertainties, which are dominated sidelobe straylight pick-up and imperfect calibration. However, even these two effects are at least two orders of magnitude weaker than the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations as measured in terms of the angular temperature power spectrum. A residual signal above the noise level is present in the multipole range $ell<20$, most notably at 30 GHz, and is likely caused by residual Galactic straylight contamination. Current analysis aims to further reduce the level of spurious signals in the data and to improve the systematic effects modelling, in particular with respect to straylight and calibration uncertainties.
This paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI papers published on JINST: http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/jinst This paper describes the Planck Low Frequency Instrument tuning activities performed through the ground test campaigns, from Unit to Satellite Levels. Tuning is key to achieve the best possible instrument performance and tuning parameters strongly depend on thermal and electrical conditions. For this reason tuning has been repeated several times during ground tests and it has been repeated in flight before starting nominal operations. The paper discusses the tuning philosophy, the activities and the obtained results, highlighting developments and changes occurred during test campaigns. The paper concludes with an overview of tuning performed during the satellite cryogenic test campaign (Summer 2008) and of the plans for the just started in-flight calibration.
This paper characterizes the effective beams,the effective beam window functions and the associated errors for the Planck HFI detectors. The effective beam is the angular response including the effect of the optics,detectors,data processing and the scan strategy. The window function is the representation of this beam in the harmonic domain which is required to recover an unbiased measurement of the CMB angular power spectrum. The HFI is a scanning instrument and its effective beams are the convolution of: (a) the optical response of the telescope and feeds;(b)the processing of the time-ordered data and deconvolution of the bolometric and electronic time response; and (c) the merging of several surveys to produce maps. The time response functions are measured using observations of Jupiter and Saturn and by minimizing survey difference residuals. The scanning beam is the post-deconvolution angular response of the instrument, and is characterized with observations of Mars. The main beam solid angles are determined to better than 0.5% at each HFI frequency band. Observations of Jupiter and Saturn limit near sidelobes (within 5deg) to about 0.1% of the total solid angle. Time response residuals remain as long tails in the scanning beams, but contribute less than 0.1% of the total. The bias and uncertainty in the beam products are estimated using ensembles of simulated planet observations that include the impact of instrumental noise and known systematic effects.The correlation structure of these ensembles is well-described by five error eigenmodes that are sub-dominant to sample variance and instrumental noise in the harmonic domain. A suite of consistency tests provide confidence that the error model represents a sufficient description of the data. The total error in the effective beam window functions is below 1% at 100GHz up to ell~1500$,and below 0.5% at 143 and 217GHz up to ~2000.
The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) is an array of pseudo-correlation radiometers on board the Planck satellite, the ESA mission dedicated to precision measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The LFI covers three bands centred at 30, 44 and 70 GHz, with a goal bandwidth of 20% of the central frequency. The characterization of the broadband frequency response of each radiometer is necessary to understand and correct for systematic effects, particularly those related to foreground residuals and polarization measurements. In this paper we present the measured band shape of all the LFI channels and discuss the methods adopted for their estimation. The spectral characterization of each radiometer was obtained by combining the measured spectral response of individual units through a dedicated RF model of the LFI receiver scheme. As a consistency check, we also attempted end-to-end spectral measurements of the integrated radiometer chain in a cryogenic chamber. However, due to systematic effects in the measurement setup, only qualitative results were obtained from these tests. The measured LFI bandpasses exhibit a moderate level of ripple, compatible with the instrument scientific requirements.