Open AccessThe geometric calibration of the Planck satellite using point‐source observations
Author(s) -
Harrison D. L.,
Van Leeuwen F.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09696.x
Subject(s) - physics , planck , calibration , satellite , a priori and a posteriori , remote sensing , point (geometry) , point source , astrophysics , astronomy , optics , geometry , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , quantum mechanics , geology
The geometric calibration of the Planck satellite is investigated, specifically those parameters which require the use of the science data for their extraction. Methods for the recovery of these geometric‐calibration parameters from point‐source detections in the science data are presented, together with the accuracies which may be achieved. These methods apply to the a posteriori evaluation of these parameters using all the mission data, and may be incorporated into the initial stages of the construction of the Planck final compact source catalogue. It is found that this process achieves the pointing requirements, provided that the geometric‐calibration parameters vary only slowly in time. Indeed the errors in the pointing reconstruction due to the geometric‐calibration parameters may be seen to approach those due to the star tracker.