Infrared Space Observatory - Short Wavelength Spectrometer
The Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) was one of the four instruments onboard of ESA's Infrared Space Observatory ISO. The institute of Astronomy has been involved in the consortium that built and calibrated ISO-SWS.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) is an astronomical satellite that was operational between November 1995 and May 1998. It operated at wavelengths from 2.5 to 240 microns, in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The satellite consisted of a large cryostat filled with 1800kg liquid helium that cooled the 60cm telescope and the four scientific instruments to operational temperatures between 1.5 and 3.5K.
The Short-Wave Spectrometer (SWS) was covering the 2.4 to 45 micron band at moderate resolution (~1500-2000). At this resolving power ISO-SWS has opened a new spectral window on the Universe. The mid-infrared is a rich spectral region with many molecular features and forbidden atomic transitions. ISO-SWS observations led to discoveries in various areas : chemistry of gas and ices in star-forming regions, mineralogy of circumstellar dust and the connection with dust in our solar-system, the vertical structure of the atmospheres of giant planets, the composition of the soil on Mars and asteroids, the star formation rate in starburst galaxies, etc...
The SWS Principal Investigator is Thijs de Graauw at the Laboratory for Space Research, Groningen, The Netherlands, where the main part of the instrument was built and qualified for flight. The Max-Planck Institute for Extra-terrestrial physics in Garching, Germany, manufactured the Fabry-Perot interferometer component of the instrument, allowing to scan limited wavelength ranges with a spectral resolution of up to 40000. The Institute of Astronomy of the K.U.Leuven has joined the SWS consortium in 1994. The team members from Leuven have been responsible for the development of software for data reduction, infrastructure software for configuration control and for various calibration aspects, especially the Relative Spectral Response Calibration. Our SWS calibration work was supported by an important effort at the institute to improve the models of late-type stars. The improvement of mid-infrared synthetic spectra of cool giants was based on the MARCS model atmosphere in collaboration with the Uppsala Group in Sweden.
People involved
Christoffel Waelkens Rik Huygen Bart Vandenbussche Leen Decin
Related links
http://iso.esac.esa.int/
The SWS consortium pages
The Dutch ISO Data Analysis Centre at SRON, Groningen (The Netherlands)
The ISO spectrometer data Centre at MPE, Garching, Germany
