NIKA

The New IRAM KIDs Array (NIKA) is a Kinetic Inductance Detectors camera for bolometric observations at the IRAM 30m telescope. NIKA has been built by the Institut Néel (IN), in Grenoble, France under the lead of Alain Benoit, and with the contributions of other persons forming the NIKA collaboration. In 2013 the main contributing institutes are IN, IRAM, IPAG, LPSC, AIG Cardiff.

Overview

NIKA is a dual band instrument using few hundreds of Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID). The KID resonances variations which are dependent on the incoming power are probed by a comb of tones allowing to perform frequency domain multiplexing. Being a prototype in constant evolution the arrays characteristics (number of pixels, field of view, sensitivity, etc.) have evolved over the years from each test run to the other. The main characteristics of the latest configuration are summarized on the following table.

Call for proposals

NIKA is offered for the first time to the community the winter semester 2013/14:

• Call for observing proposals with the 30m

• Guidelines to estimate observing times (Billot et al. 2013).

Publications

• Calvo et al. 2013

• Monfardini et al. 2011

• Monfardini et al. 2010

Support teams

• Overall coordinator:

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

• NIKA team:

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

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

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

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

  • Antonio D'Addabbo <antonio.d-addabbo@grenoble.cnrs.fr> (IN)

  • Nicolas Ponthieu (IPAG)

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

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

  • Remi Adam <adam@lpsc.in2p3.fr> (LPSC)

• IRAM/Granada support team:

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

  • Israel Hermelo (bolometer pool manager, <hermelo@iram.es>)

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

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

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

  • Robert Zylka
  • Walter Brunswig

NIKA How-to's

• Pool Preparation (coming soon) provides information on the observing modes offered as well as examples of the scripts that you need to prepare to observe your project.

• Observing Session (coming soon) provides an example of a typical session at the 30m telescope with GISMO.

• Data Reduction (coming soon) provides some basic examples to reduce NIKA data.

• Frequently asked questions (coming soon) provides answers to some commonly asked questions.

1st NIKA pool (February 2014)

The 1st NIKA pool pool will take place from the 18th of February to the 28th of February 2014. Observations will be carried from a dedicated pool account (I. Hermelo will provide login information).

Pool projects and observers

For information about the accepted projects and the observers at the 30m please go to:

• List of accepted projects.

• Pool observers for the February 2014 run

• Room occupancy.

Progress

The progress of the 4th GISMO pool can be followed via:

• Pool data base

Previous observing runs

• 3rd GISMO pool (April 2013)

  • List of accepted projects.

  • Pool observers for the April 2013 run

• 2nd GISMO pool (November 2012)

  • List of accepted projects.

  • Pool observers for the November 2012 run

• 1st GISMO pool (April 2012)

  • List of accepted projects.

• 5th alignment run (March 2012)

  • Go to the 5th run Wiki page

• 4th test run (April 2011)

  • Go to the 4th run Wiki page

• 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

Author: Israel Hermelo (GISMO pool manager)

email: hermelo@iram.es

Created: 2013.10.25

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

Last update: 2013.11.02