Spitzer Documentation & Tools
MIPS Instrument Handbook

Table of Contents


Chapter 1           Introduction.

1.1        Document Purpose and Scope.

1.2        Basic Definitions.

1.3        MIPS Essentials.

1.4        Standard Acknowledgements for MIPS Publications.

1.5        How to Contact Us.

Chapter 2           Instrument Description.

2.1        Overview

2.2        Description of Optics.

2.2.1     Spatial and Spectral Resolutions.

2.2.2     Field of View.

2.2.3     Point Spread Function.

2.2.4     Spectral Response.

2.2.5     Distortion.

2.3        Detectors.

2.3.1     Focal Plane Detector Array Design.

2.3.2     Detector Performance.

2.3.3     Detector Behavior.

2.3.4     Annealing and Stimulator Use.

2.4        Electronics.

2.4.1     Hardware.

2.4.2     Software.

2.4.3     Array Control.

2.5        Sensitivity.

2.5.1     Imaging: Sources of Noise and Confusion.

2.5.2     Estimating Background.

2.5.3     Estimating Signal-To-Noise Ratio and Integration Time.

2.5.4     Sensitivity vs. Exposure Time.

2.5.5     Spectroscopy: Spectral Energy Distribution Sensitivity.

2.5.6     Saturation.

Chapter 3           Operating Modes.

3.1        Photometry Mode.

3.1.1     Photometry - 24 micron, Compact Source (Small Field).

3.1.2     Photometry - 24 micron Large Source (Large Field).

3.1.3     Photometry - 70 micron Compact Source (Small Field), Default Pixel Scale.

3.1.4     Photometry - 70 micron Large Source (Large Field), Default Pixel Scale.

3.1.5     Photometry - 160 micron, Compact Source (Small Field).

3.1.6     Photometry - 160 micron, Large Source (Large Field).

3.1.7     Photometry - 160 micron, Enhanced (Small Field).

3.1.8     Super Resolution Mode.

3.1.9     Super-Resolution - 70 micron Compact Source (Small Field), Fine Pixel Scale.

3.1.10   Super Resolution - 70 micron Large Source (Large Field), Fine Pixel Scale.

3.1.11   Super Resolution - 160 micron Compact Source (Small Field).

3.1.12   Total Power (TP) Mode.

3.1.13   Photometry Raster Map.

3.2        Large Area Mapping: Scan Mode.

3.2.1     Scan Map Mode.

3.2.2     Telescope Motions.

3.2.3     Data Acquisition.

3.2.4     Fast Scan Mode.

3.3        MIPS/SED Mode.

3.4        Overheads and Best Observing Practices.

3.4.1     Sources of Observing Time Overhead.

3.4.2     Fractional Observing Time Overhead.

3.4.3     Best Observing Practices.

Chapter 4           Calibration.

4.1        Imaging.

4.1.1     Methodology.

4.1.2     Photometric Calibration.

4.1.3     Uncertainties and Repeatability.

4.1.4     Flat fields.

4.2        Spectroscopy.

4.2.1     Wavelength.

4.2.2     Illumination Correction.

4.2.3     Flux.

4.2.4     Aperture Correction.

4.3        Basic toolset for working with MIPS data.

4.3.1     Units and flux densities.

4.3.2     Flux Conversion Factors.

4.3.3     Magnitude Zero Points.

4.3.4     Aperture Correction.

4.3.5     Color Correction.

4.3.6     PSF Characterization.

4.3.7     Astrometry - Including Distortion and Pointing.

4.4        Start-Up and Shut-Down Procedures.

Chapter 5           Pipeline Processing.

5.1        Level 1: Basic Calibrated Data (BCD) Pipeline.

5.1.1     Pipeline Updates.

5.1.2     The MIPS-24 pipeline.

5.2.3     The MIPS-Ge pipeline.

5.2        Level 2: Post-BCD Pipeline.

5.2.1     MIPS and Pointing Refinement.

5.2.2     MIPS and Mosaicking/Outlier Detection.

Chapter 6           Data Products.

6.1        Data Products Overview.

6.2        File-Naming Conventions.

6.2.1     Level 1: BCDs.

6.2.2     Level 2: Post-BCD products.

6.3        Level 1: Basic Calibrated Data (BCD) Products.

6.3.1     Prime vs. Non-Prime Data.

6.3.2     MIPS/SED BCDs.

6.3.3     BCD Uncertainties.

6.3.4     Enhanced BCD (EBCD) Products.

6.4        Level 2: Post-BCD Products.

6.4.1     Pipeline Mosaics and Default Spectrum Extraction.

6.5        Bit Masks.

6.6        Header Keywords.

Chapter 7           Data Features and Artifacts.

7.1        MIPS-24 Features and Artifacts.

7.1.1     Pick-off mirror contamination and systematic pointing: practical information.

7.1.2     Jailbars.

7.1.3     Latents.

7.1.4     First and second DCE effects.

7.1.5     Post-anneal slow response drift.

7.1.6     Bright sources and droop correction.

7.1.7     Ghosts and glints.

7.1.8     Apparent zero-level offset.

7.1.9     Distortions.

7.1.10   Large- and small-scale gradients.

7.1.11   Asteroids!

7.2        MIPS Ge: 70 and 160 Micron.

7.2.1     Variations of the slow response.

7.2.2     Stim latents.

7.2.3     Extrapolated or corrupted stim-minus-background measurements.

7.2.4     Electronic non-linearities.

7.2.5     Flux non-linearities.

7.2.6     160 micron short-wavelength light leak.

7.2.7     Offline Enhancements to MIPS 70 Fine Scale or 70/160 large-field.

Chapter 8           Introduction to Data Analysis.

8.1        24 Micron Data.

8.1.1     Overview and recommended steps for looking at your data.

8.1.2     Self-calibration.

8.1.3     Sky Background Removal.

8.2        Ge 70 and 160 Micron Data.

8.2.1     High-level summary.

8.2.2     Point vs. extended sources, or why there are 2 BCDs.

8.2.3     The GeRT.

8.2.4     Recommended steps for looking at your data.

8.2.5     Note on point source photometry.

8.2.6     Example: 70 micron faint point source survey.

8.2.7     Example: 160 micron faint point source survey.

8.2.8     Example: 70 micron bright extended source.

8.2.9     Example: 160 micron bright extended source.

8.3        Making Your Own MIPS SED Mosaics.

Appendix A.     Version Log.

Appendix B.      Acronyms.

Appendix C.     Pipeline History Log.

Appendix D.     MIPS BCD File Header.

Appendix E.      List of Figures.

Appendix F.      List of Tables.

Appendix G.     Acknowledgements.

Appendix H.     Bibliography.