GISMO

This page is maintained by CK, SL, and the GISMO team

Overview

The Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2mm Observer (GISMO) is a bolometer camera for the IRAM 30m telescope. It has been build by Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland under the lead of Johannes Staguhn. GISMO consists of 8x16 pixels with super conducting transition edge sensors (TES). The TES are read out by time domain SQUID multiplexers built at the National Institute for Standards (NIST), in Boulder, Colorado. . The nominal bandwidth is 140-162GHz (FWHM), pixels are spaced by 13.75", the telescope HPBW is 16.7". The sensitivity is 16 mJy sqrt(sec) per beam. The field-of-view is 1.8'x3.7'. In the standard observing mode, data are taken while the telescope follows Lissajous curves without switching the secondary. An automated pipeline merges the GISMO data with the telescope data streams to create FITS files which are automatically processed by the reduction software crush to create logs, pointing results, and a first quick view of the data.

The 2mm spectral range provides a unique terrestrial window enabling ground-based observations of the earliest active dusty galaxies in the universe and thereby allowing a better constraint on the star formation rate in these objects.

Documentation

Science Observations

During the first open observing run in April 2012, observations will be carried out as pooled observations from a dedicated pool account gismo11. M.Gonzalez will provide login information. Progress of observations can be followed via the pool data base.

• GismoObservingScripts for the April 2012 run providing samples and explanations about how to start PaKo in order to run the telescope with GISMO, and about total power maps using Lissajous and On-the-fly patterns. Observations using the wobbler will not be offered for this run. The old page GismoHowToObserve is obsolete.

• Notes on paKo and NCS for GISMO 2012 gives additional information on Pakonew and Lissajou observing mode.

• Pool observers in April 2012

• GISMO observing schedule for the April 2012 run: The following is a preliminary schedule for the two weeks of GISMO pool in April. Please, note that this schedule is a VERY FIRST DRAFT , so the observations can be carried out in a very different way, depending on how GISMO is installed, the weather conditions, the needs of the GISMO team... Priority has been given to the A-rated projects. This schedule is VERY SUSCEPTIBLE to be modified again: GISMOscheduleApr2012.png

Call for proposals

In September 2011, GISMO had for the 1st time been offered to the community. Two weeks of dedicated GISMO observations are now planned for April 2012. GISMO will be available again for the summer semester 2012.

• Call for proposals.

• Time estimator. This document contains guidelines for astronomers to compute observing time estimates.

• crush data processing software will be used to reduce all data and crush GISMO manual.

Publications

1. Dwek, Staguhn et al. 2011 ApJ,
   Star and dust formation activities in AzTEC-3: A starburst galaxy at z = 5.3

2. Arendt et al. 2011 ApJ,
   The Radio - 2 mm Spectral Index of the Crab Nebula Measured with GISMO

3. Capack et al. 2011 Nature,
   A massive proto-cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z~5.3

4. Dicker et al. 2009 ApJ,
   90GHz and 150GHz observations of the Orion M42 region. A sub-millimeter to radio analysis

5. Benford, Moseley, Zmuidzinas 2009 Journal of Physics
   Direct detectors for the Einstein inflation probe

6. IRAM Newsletter 2/2009
   GISMO - The Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2 Millimeter Observer tested at the IRAM 30m observatory

7. Staguhn et al. 2008 Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 151, 3, 709
   GISMO, a 2 mm Bolometer Camera Optimized for the Study of High Redshift Galaxies

Support teams

• Overall coordinator: Samuel Leclercq <leclercq@iram.fr> (IRAM/Grenoble)

• GISMO support team:

  • Johannes Staguhn <johannes.g.staguhn@nasa.gov> (PI)

  • Elmer Sharp
  • Steve Maher
  • Dale Fixen
  • Attila Kovacs (crush)
• IRAM/Granada support team:

  • Albrecht Sievers (friend of GISMO, <sievers@iram.es>)

  • Manuel Gonzalez (pool manager, <gonzalez@iram.es>)

  • Gabriele Bruni (pool manager, <bruni@iram.es>)

  • Nicolas Billot (30m scheduler, <billot@iram.es>)

  • Carsten Kramer (station manager, <kramer@iram.es>)

Internal pages

Documentation

• GISMOSoftwareOperationalManual23apr2012.pdf

April 2012 1st pool run

Daily reports

• GismoRun6

Test plan

• TestPlan for the first days of the April run

• GismoToDoList

Test runs 2007-2012

5th alignment run, March 2012

• Go to the 5th run Wiki page (installation of GISMO at a permanent position with new optics, baffle and new filter)

4th test run, April 2011

• Go to the 4th run Wiki page (restricted access, please send an email to SL to obtain the login information)

3rd test run, April 2010

• Go to the 3rd run Wiki page

2nd test run, October 2008

• Go to the 2nd run Wiki page

1st test run, November 2007

• Go to the 1st run Wiki page