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IRCAM3 manual
IRCAM/TUFTI Sensitivity
Note that at L' and M' the exposure times
for the full array are close to the readout time and so efficiency
is low; at L' it is 60% and at M' 50%. These overheads are not
included in the figures below. The point source figures are based on
actual measurements of faint point sources and not extrapolated
from the surface brightness figures. The L' and M sensitivities
are from recent measurements on dry nights with CSO Tau 0.04-0.06,
and seeing 0.3-0.7 arcseconds. Good seeing and dry conditions help
significantly at M and observers may want to ask for their time to be
flexed accordingly.
Surface Brightness
1 sigma / 1 hour magnitudes
| Filter |
per pixel | per sq.arcsec. |
| J |
27.1 |
24.4 |
| H |
26.4 |
23.7 |
| K |
25.7 |
23.0 |
| L' |
20.7 |
18.0 |
| M' |
18.1 |
15.4 |
Point Sources
5 sigma magnitudes; 0.5" seeing, 2" aperture
| Filter |
Exposure Time, seconds |
| |
10 |
60 |
600 |
3600 |
| J |
17.7 |
18.7 |
20.0 |
20.9 |
| H |
17.0 |
18.0 |
19.3 |
20.2 |
| K |
16.3 |
17.3 |
18.6 |
19.5 |
| L' |
11.6 |
12.6 |
13.9 |
14.8 |
| M' |
9.4 |
10.4 |
11.7 |
12.6 |
Notes
For point sources the sensitivities assume that the
source is
jittered on the array and separate blank sky frames are not necessary.
If sky frames are necessary, for example for extended sources, then
only half the time is spent on source and the sensitivities are
lower by 0.4 mag than those given in all the Table.
For point sources if image quality improves and smaller s/w apertures can be
used the sensitivity goes up, e.g. if a 1" s/w aperture can be used,
the signal stays the same, the noise decreases by a factor of two, and
the sensitivities improve by 0.7 mag.
For surface brightness with other apertures increase the signal by the
increase in area, increase
the noise by the square root of the increase in area, and hence increase
the S/N by the square root of the increase in area.
To calculate S/N for a different magnitude after the same length of time,
multiply the S/N by the ratio of the fluxes.
To calculate
S/N for the same magnitude but different exposure,
multiply the S/N by the square root of the ratio of the exposure times.
For narrowband filters the signal is reduced by the reduced passband
of the filter and the noise is reduced by the square root of this,
hence the S/N is reduced by the square root of the flux reduction factor.
The narrowband K and L filters are typically 1.5% wide compared to the
broadband width of 15%, hence the S/N for these filters should be reduced
by a factor of 3, or the magnitudes made brighter by 1.3mag.
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