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A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE

Author(s)
Simcoe, Robert A.; Sullivan, Peter W.
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Abstract
We characterize the near-IR sky background from 308 observations with the Folded-port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) spectrograph at Magellan. A subset of 105 observations selected to minimize lunar and thermal effects gives a continuous, median spectrum from 0.83 to 2.5 μ m, which we present in Table 2 . The data are used to characterize the broadband continuum emission between atmospheric OH features and correlate its properties with observing conditions such as lunar angle and time of night. We find that the Moon contributes significantly to the inter-line continuum in and bands, whereas the observed -band continuum is dominated by the blended Lorentzian wings of multiple OH line profiles, even at = 6000 . Lunar effects may be mitigated in and through careful scheduling of observations, but the most ambitious near-IR programs will benefit from allocation during dark observing time if those observations are not limited by read noise. In and , our measured continuum exceeds space-based average estimates of the zodiacal light, but it is not readily identified with known terrestrial foregrounds. If further measurements confirm such a fundamental background, it would impact requirements for OH-suppressed instruments operating in this regime.
Date issued
2012-11
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77190
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Journal
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Publisher
University of Chicago Press, The
Citation
Sullivan, Peter W., and Robert A. Simcoe. “A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 124.922 (2012): 1336–1346.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0004-6280
1538-3873

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