NIKA2 Homepage

NIKA2, the second generation New-IRAM-KID-Array, is a dual band camera operating simultaneously at 150 and 260 GHz. The instrument is based on large arrays of superconducting Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID) operated at temperatures of 100mK. NIKA2 is built by an international consortium, led by the Institute Neel (Grenoble France). Successful installation took place in early October 2015. NIKA2's field of view has a 6.5arcmin diameter, with angular resolutions of 12 and 18 arcsec at 1 and 2 mm wavelengths respectively. NIKA2 is designed as a facility instrument which will remain at its present position for at least a decade. The instrument will allow to measure linear polarizations at 1.15 mm.

For September 2016, some important changes to the hardware are currently being prepared: the 150 GHz array, the dichroic frequency splitter, the lenses, and the cryostat window will be replaced and upgraded. In addition, several of the 20 readout electronics boards will be replaced with the last version. Commissioning will then continue well into the winter semester and NIKA2 shall be opened to the community in 2017.

NIKA2 in the web:

• NIKA2 website at IPAG

• NIKA2-internal wiki at IRAM-FR.

Overview

Some prelimiary characteristics of NIKA-2:

Call for proposals and time estimator

A limited amount of time will be available in the upcoming winter semester 2016/17. See the call for proposals here. The above sensitivities shall be used, together with a conservative factor for overheads of 2.0, which takes into account slewing, pointing, focus, skydips, beam measurements, photometry, tuning, etc.. The sensitivity at 1mm is obtained after combining the measurements of the two 1mm arrays. No polarization measurement is provided for the time being.

• Guidelines to estimate observing times.

Publications

• Instrument/detectors papers:

  • Catalano et al. 2016, The NIKA2 commissioning campaign: performance and first results, arxiv

  • Calvo et al. 2016, The NIKA2 instrument, a dual-band kilopixel KID array for millimetric astronomy, arxiv

  • Goupy et al. 2016, Microfabrication technology for large LEKID arrays : from NIKA2 to future applications, arxiv

  • Monfardini et al. 2014, Latest NIKA Results and the NIKA-2 Project, JLTP 176, 787, arxiv

  • Catalano et al. 2014, Performance and calibration of the NIKA camera at the IRAM 30 m telescope, A&A 569, A9, arxiv

  • Calvo et al. 2013, Improved mm-wave photometry for kinetic inductance detectors, A&A, 551, L12 ADS

  • Bourrion et al. 2012, NIKEL: Electronics and data acquisition for kilopixels kinetic inductance camera, Journal of Instrumentation, 7, 07, pp. 7014. arXiv

  • Monfardini et al. 2011, A Dual-band Millimeter-wave Kinetic Inductance Camera for the IRAM 30 m Telescope, ApJS, 194, 2, article id. 24. arXiv

  • Internal list of technical papers

• Astronomical papers:

  • Adam, R., Comis, B., Bartalucci, I., et al. 2016, High angular resolution Sunyaev-Zel'dovich observations of MACS J1423.8+2404 with NIKA: Multiwavelength analysis, A&A, 586, 122 ADS

  • Adam, R., Comis, B., Macias-Perez, J.-F., et al, 2015, Pressure distribution of the high-redshift cluster of galaxies CL J1226.9+3332 with NIKA, A&A, 576, A12 ADS

  • Adam, R., Comis, B., Macias-Perez, J.-F, et al, 2014, First observation of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect with kinetic inductance detectors, A&A, 569, 66 ADS

• Ph.D. thesis:

  • Rémi Adam (2012-2015) - Advisors: J.F. Macías-Pérez and F.X. Désert (Observation des amas de galaxies par effet Sunyaev-Zel'dovich et de la polarisation du fond diffus cosmologique : de Planck à NIKA (in French))

• NIKA2 publications list maintained at IPAG

Technical Documentation

• NIKA2 Data Acquisition, Camadia, M.Calvo, Feb-2016

• NIKA2 tuning procedure and data flagging description, M.Calvo, Feb-2016

• Wiki-pages:

  • Discussion on beams

  • Spectral bands

  • Remote network access to NIKA-2

  • Pool Preparation provides information on the observing modes offered for NIKA2 and examples of the scripts that you must prepare to observe your project.

  • Observing Session provides an example of a typical session with NIKA2 at the 30m telescope.

  • Pointing sources and calibrators provides a list of pointing sources and calibrators.

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Technical runs to commission NIKA2

• 1^st test run of NIKA2: 29-October-2015 till 10-November-2015. Installation, cool down at the 30m, testing/debugging/developing. [= Run 13 of a NIKA instrument]

  • Go to the 1st run Wiki page

  • Private Wiki detailing the organization of the run and the instrument characterization plan

• 2^nd test run of NIKA2: 24-November-2015 till 02-December-2015. Continue tests started during run 1, in particular Beam maps and NEFD with the 13 NIKEL boards assembled the last days of run 1. [= Run 14 of a NIKA instrument]

  • Go to the 2nd run Wiki page

• 3^rd test run of NIKA2: 12-January-2016 till 01-February-2016. Implementation of new NIKEL boards; the 20 data lines of NIKA2 are foreseen to be plugged simultaneously. With the 3 arrays fully read, continue and redo tests started with runs 1 & 2, in particular Beam maps and NEFD. [= Run 15 of a NIKA instrument]

  • Go to the 3rd run Wiki page

• 4^th test run of NIKA2: 1-March-2016 till 15-March-2016. Continue tests started with previous runs, in particular investigate deeper beam patterns (XY focus, beam maps), synchronization, array 1 & 3 performances vs electronic boards, NEFD, mapping strategies. [= Run 16 of a NIKA instrument]

  • Go to the 4th run Wiki page

• Dark run: 4-May-2016. Test sensitivity of NIKA2 to external electromagnetic perturbations, with the entrance window of the cryostat closed. [= Run 17 of a NIKA instrument]

• 5^th test run of NIKA2: 16-September-2016 till 11-October-2016. Upgrade NIKA2 with new dichroic, new corrugated lenses and window, new 2mm array, new NIKEL boards (get the 20 lines with homogeneous electronics, v3); redo better the tests started with previous runs (mostly beam maps in best weather conditions, but also various types of scan to investigate deeper beams and noise, synchronization, NEFD, skydips, mapping strategies, possibly polarization. [= Run 18 of a NIKA instrument]

  • Go to the 5th run Wiki page

Support teams

• Overall coordinator:

  • Samuel Leclercq (IRAM/Grenoble, <leclercq@iram.fr>)

• NIKA2 team:

  • Alain Benoit <alain.benoit@grenoble.cnrs.fr> (PI, IN)

  • Alessandro Monfardini <monfardini@neel.cnrs.fr> (co-PI, IN)

  • François-Xavier Désert <francois-xavier.desert@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr> (IPAG)

  • Martino Calvo <martino.calvo@neel.cnrs.fr> (IN)

  • Johannes Goupy <johannes.goupy@neel.cnrs.fr> (IN)

  • Nicolas Ponthieu <nicolas.ponthieu@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr> (IPAG)

  • Juan Macias-Perez <macias@lpsc.in2p3.fr> (LPSC)

  • Andrea Catalano <catalano@lpsc.in2p3.fr> (LPSC)

  • Laurence Perotto <laurence.perotto@lpsc.in2p3.fr> (LPSC)

• IRAM/Granada NIKA2 support team:

  • Carsten Kramer (Station Manager and Scheduler, <kramer@iram.es>)

  • Pablo Garcia (time estimator, continuum Pool Manager, <pgarcia@iram.es>)

  • Albrecht Sievers (IMBfits, <sievers@iram.es>)

  • Hans Ungerechts (NCS/pako, <ungerechts@iram.es>)

  • Pablo Mellado (Computers/Network, <mellado@iram.es>)

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Author: Israel Hermelo. Created: 5-Aug-2015. This page is maintained by PG, CK, SL and the NIKA team. Last update: 29-Jul-2016