High-resolution Airborne Wide-band Camera (HAWC[Formula: see text]) is the facility far-infrared imager and polarimeter for SOFIA, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. It is designed to cover the portion of the infrared spectrum that is completely inaccessible to ground-based observatories and which is essential for studies of astronomical sources with temperatures between tens and hundreds of degrees Kelvin. Its ability to make polarimetric measurements of aligned dust grains provides a unique new capability for studying interstellar magnetic fields. HAWC[Formula: see text] began commissioning flights in April 2016 and was accepted as a facility instrument in early 2018. In this paper, we describe the instrument, its operational procedures, and its performance on the observatory.
We present deep continuum observations using the GISMO camera at a wavelength of 2 mm centered on the Hubble Deep Field in the GOODS-N field. These are the first deep field observations ever obtained at this wavelength. The 1σ sensitivity in the innermost ∼4 of the 7 diameter map is ∼135 μJy beam −1 , a factor of three higher in flux/beam sensitivity than the deepest available SCUBA 850 μm observations, and almost a factor of four higher in flux/beam sensitivity than the combined MAMBO/AzTEC 1.2 mm observations of this region. Our source extraction algorithm identifies 12 sources directly, and another 3 through correlation with known sources at 1.2 mm and 850 μm. Five of the directly detected GISMO sources have counterparts in the MAMBO/AzTEC catalog, and four of those also have SCUBA counterparts. HDF850.1, one of the first blank-field detected submillimeter galaxies, is now detected at 2 mm. The median redshift of all sources with counterparts of known redshifts is z = 2.91 ± 0.94. Statistically, the detections are most likely real for five of the seven 2 mm sources without shorter wavelength counterparts, while the probability for none of them being real is negligible.
We present results of 2 mm observations of the Crab Nebula, obtained using the Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2 Millimeter Observer (GISMO) bolometer camera on the IRAM 30 m telescope. Additional 3.3 mm observations with the MUSTANG bolometer array on the Green Bank Telescope are also presented. The integrated 2 mm flux density of the Crab Nebula provides no evidence for the emergence of a second synchrotron component that has been proposed. It is consistent with the radio power law spectrum, extrapolated up to a break frequency of log(ν b [GHz]) = 2.84 ± 0.29 or ν b = 695 +651 −336 GHz. The Crab Nebula is well-resolved by the ∼ 16. ′′ 7 beam (FWHM) of GISMO. Comparison to radio data at comparable spatial resolution enables us to confirm significant spatial variation of the spectral index between 21 cm and 2 mm. The main effect is a spectral flattening in the inner region of the Crab Nebula, correlated with the toroidal structure at the center of the nebula that is prominent in the near-IR through X-ray regime. Subject headings: ISM: individual (Crab Nebula) -ISM: supernova remnants -Radiation mechanisms: non-thermal * Based on observations carried out with the IRAM 30m Telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).
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