The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) is one of three focal plane instruments in the Spitzer Space Telescope. IRAC is a four-channel camera that obtains simultaneous broad-band images at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 µm. Two nearly adjacent 5.2×5.2 arcmin fields of view in the focal plane are viewed by the four channels in pairs (3.6 and 5.8 µm; 4.5 and 8 µm). All four detector arrays in the camera are 256×256 pixels in size, with the two shorter wavelength channels using InSb and the two longer wavelength channels using Si:As IBC detectors. IRAC is a powerful survey instrument because of its high sensitivity, large field of view, and four-color imaging. This paper summarizes the in-flight scientific, technical, and operational performance of IRAC.

The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope is absolutely calibrated by comparing photometry of a set of A stars near the north ecliptic pole to predictions based on ground-based observations and a stellar atmosphere model. The brightness of point sources is calibrated to an accuracy of 3%, relative to models for A-star stellar atmospheres, for observations performed and analyzed in the same manner as for the calibration stars. This includes corrections for the location of the star in the array and the location of the centroid within the peak pixel. Long-term stability of the IRAC photometry was measured by monitoring the brightness of A dwarfs and K giants (near the north ecliptic pole) observed several times per month; the photometry is stable to 1.5% (rms) over a year. Intermediate-timescale stability of the IRAC photometry was measured by monitoring at least one secondary calibrator (near the ecliptic plane) every 12 hr while IRAC was in nominal operations; the intermediate-term photometry is stable, with a 1% dispersion (rms). One of the secondary calibrators was found to have significantly time-variable (5%) mid-infrared emission, with a period (7.4 days) matching the optical light curve; it is possibly a Cepheid variable.

Sagittarius A * (Sgr A * ) is the variable radio, near-infrared (NIR), and X-ray source associated with accretion onto the Galactic center black hole. We present an analysis of the most comprehensive NIR variability data set of SgrA * to date: eight 24 hr epochs of continuous monitoring of SgrA * at 4.5 μm with the IRAC instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope, 93 epochs of 2.18 μm data from Naos Conica at the Very Large Telescope, and 30 epochs of 2.12 μm data from the NIRC2 camera at the Keck Observatory, in total 94,929 measurements. A new approximate Bayesian computation method for fitting the first-order structure function extracts information beyond current fast Fourier transformation (FFT) methods of power spectral density (PSD) estimation. With a combined fit of the data of all three observatories, the characteristic coherence timescale of SgrA * is 243The PSD has no detectable features on timescales down to 8.5 minutes (95% credible level), which is the ISCO orbital frequency for a dimensionless spin parameter a=0.92. One light curve measured simultaneously at 2.12 and 4.5 μm during a low flux-density phase gave a spectral index α s =1.6±0.1 (F s n µ n a -). This value implies that the SgrA * NIR color becomes bluer during higher flux-density phases. The probability densities of flux densities of the combined data sets are best fit by log-normal distributions. Based on these distributions, the SgrA * spectral energy distribution is consistent with synchrotron radiation from a nonthermal electron population from below 20GHz through the NIR.

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We present observational constraints on the stellar populations of two ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) using optical through near-infrared (NIR) spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. Our analysis is enabled by new Spitzer-IRAC 3.6 µm and 4.5 µm imaging, archival optical imaging, and the prospector fully Bayesian SED fitting framework. Our sample contains one field UDG (DGSAT I), one Virgo cluster UDG (VCC 1287), and one Virgo cluster dwarf elliptical for comparison (VCC 1122). We find that the optical-NIR colors of the three galaxies are significantly different from each other. We infer that VCC 1287 has an old ( > ∼ 7.7 Gyr) and surprisingly metal-poor ([Z/Z ] < ∼ − 1.0) stellar population, even after marginalizing over uncertainties on diffuse interstellar dust. In contrast, the field UDG DGSAT I shows evidence of being younger than the Virgo UDG, with an extended star formation history and an age posterior extending down to ∼ 3 Gyr. The stellar metallicity of DGSAT I is sub-solar but higher than that of the Virgo UDG, with [Z/Z ] = −0.63 +0.35 −0.62 ; in the case of exactly zero diffuse interstellar dust, DGSAT I may even have solar metallicity. With VCC 1287 and several Coma UDGs, a general picture is emerging where cluster UDGs may be "failed" galaxies, but the field UDG DGSAT I seems more consistent with a stellar feedback-induced expansion scenario. In the future, our approach can be applied to a large and diverse sample of UDGs down to faint surface brightness limits, with the goal of constraining their stellar ages, stellar metallicities, and circumstellar and diffuse interstellar dust content.