AMKID Observing Time Calculator, Ver 1.0
You can operate AMKID either using only the 850micron Low Frequency Array (LFA) or in dual color mode with the LFA and the 350micron High Frequency Array (HFA) in parallel.
You can either calculate the RMS for a given integration time, or calculate the integration time needed to reach a certain RMS.
The LFA of AMKID is background limited. This implies that the sensitivity of the receiver depends on the sky temperature (elevation & PWV) which is taken into account in the time estimator. For typical observing conditions in the LFA only configuration (elevation=50deg, PWV=1mm) the sensitivity for extended sources (no spatial smoothing applied) is ~95 mJy sqrt(s) degrading to ~110 mJy sqrt(s) for PWV=1.5mm. For typical dual color observing conditions (elevation=50deg, PWV=0.4mm) the LFA sensitivity improves to ~85 mJy sqrt(s). The high frequency array (HFA) is expected to have a sensitivity of ~180 mJy sqrt(s) with no dependence on the sky temperature.
The map rms will improve when spatial smoothing is applied (larger integration time per beam). The time estimator takes this into account and allows to smooth by certain percentages of the beams size. The resulting beam size is displayed with the results.
The map extent is given in arcmin in each dimension and should correspond to the area you wish to cover with homogeneous sensitivity. In the calculation the array size (15 arcmin) is added in one dimension (the scanning direction) to obtain a homogeneous rms. For a single point source you can set the map size to 0,0. In this case the time estimator uses a compact observing pattern corresponding to 4.3 x 4.3 arcmin on sky.
The calculated integration time include overhead times for start-up, pointing and focus as well as calibrations accounting for 40% of the on-source time.
Version history
- Version 1.0 (2026-06-18): Based on Python script by AWE.
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