Planck-LFI radiometers tuning

TL;DR

This paper details the tuning procedures and results for the Planck Low Frequency Instrument, emphasizing ground and in-flight calibration activities to optimize performance under varying thermal and electrical conditions.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive overview of the tuning strategies, activities, and results for the Planck LFI, including developments during ground tests and initial in-flight calibration.

Findings

Successful tuning achieved optimal instrument performance

Repeated tuning ensured adaptation to thermal and electrical variations

In-flight calibration plans are underway for further optimization

Abstract

"This paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI papers published on JINST: http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/jinst" This paper describes the Planck Low Frequency Instrument tuning activities performed through the ground test campaigns, from Unit to Satellite Levels. Tuning is key to achieve the best possible instrument performance and tuning parameters strongly depend on thermal and electrical conditions. For this reason tuning has been repeated several times during ground tests and it has been repeated in flight before starting nominal operations. The paper discusses the tuning philosophy, the activities and the obtained results, highlighting developments and changes occurred during test campaigns. The paper concludes with an overview of tuning performed during the satellite cryogenic test campaign (Summer 2008) and of the plans for the just started in-flight calibration.