In-flight calibration and verification of the Planck-LFI instrument
astro-ph.IM
/ Authors
Anna Gregorio, Francesco Cuttaia, Aniello Mennella, Marco Bersanelli, Michele Maris, Peter Meinhold, Maura Sandri, Luca Terenzi, Maurizio Tomasi, Fabrizio Villa
and 33 more authors
Marco Frailis, Gianluca Morgante, Dave Pearson, Andrea Zacchei, Paola Battaglia, Reginald Christophe Butler, Richard Davis, Cristian Franceschet, Enrico Franceschi, Samuele Galeotta, Rodrigo Leonardi, Steve Lowe, Nazzareno Mandolesi, Frederick Melot, Luis Mendes, Patrick Stassi, Luca Stringhetti, Daniele Tavagnacco, Andrea Zonca, Althea Wilkinson, Philip Wilson, Maryse Charra,
/ Abstract
In this paper we discuss the Planck-LFI in-flight calibration campaign. After a brief overview of the ground test campaigns, we describe in detail the calibration and performance verification (CPV) phase, carried out in space during and just after the cool-down of LFI. We discuss in detail the functionality verification, the tuning of the front-end and warm electronics, the preliminary performance assessment and the thermal susceptibility tests. The logic, sequence, goals and results of the in-flight tests are discussed. All the calibration activities were successfully carried out and the instrument response was comparable to the one observed on ground. For some channels the in-flight tuning activity allowed us to improve significantly the noise performance.