Spectral Processing Requirements for the Herschel SPIRE Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer
Résumé
The SPIRE instrument on board the Herschel satellite contains an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer. This instrument simultaneously covers the 194―672 μm wavelength range, with an unvignetted field of view of 2.6', and pixel FWHM of \tilde16'' (short wavelengths) and \tilde35'' (long wavelengths). It will be possible to operate in a raster mode, and so cover large areas of sky. The data produced will be either low spectral resolution continuum measurements or have higher spectral resolution to observe lines. We describe the instrument characteristics and the software requirements for scientific analysis of the resulting 3D spectral data cubes.