Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: We describe the production and verification of sky maps of the five Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) fields observed as part of the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) during the Science Demonstration Phase (SDP) of the Herschel mission. We have implemented an iterative map-making algorithm [The SPIRE-HerMES Iterative Mapper (SHIM)] to produce high fidelity maps that preserve extended diffuse emission on the sky while exploiting the repeated observations of the same region of the sky with many detectors in multiple scan directions to minimize residual instrument noise. We specify here the SHIM algorithm and outline the various tests that were performed to determine and characterize the quality of the maps and verify that the astrometry, point source flux and power on all relevant angular scales meet the needs of the HerMES science goals. These include multiple jackknife tests, determination of the map transfer function and detailed examination of the power spectra of both sky and jackknife maps. The map transfer function is approximately unity on scales from 1 arcmin to 1°. Final maps (v1.0), including multiple jackknives, as well as the SHIM pipeline, have been used by the HerMES team for the production of SDP papers.
Authors: L. Levenson, G. Marsden, M. Zemcov, A. Amblard, A. Blain, J. Bock, E. Chapin, A. Conley, A. Cooray, C. D. Dowell, T. P. Ellsworth-Bowers, A. Franceschini, J. Glenn, M. Griffin, M. Halpern, H. T. Nguyen, S. J. Oliver, M. J. Page, A. Papageorgiou, I. Pérez-Fournon, M. Pohlen, N. Rangwala, M. Rowan-Robinson, B. Schulz, Douglas Scott, P. Serra, D. L. Shupe, E. Valiante, J. D. Vieira, L. Vigroux, D. Wiebe, G. Wright, C. K. Xu
Institutions: California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of British Columbia, University of California, Irvine, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Padua, Cardiff University, University of Sussex, University College London, Universidad de La Laguna, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Imperial College London, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Royal Observatory, UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Language: English
Subfield: Instrumentation
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Science and Technology Facilities Council, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Awards: Rolling Grant, G7921347250
OpenAlex ID: W1880004372