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S. Kwok (University of Calgary & ASIAA), P. Bernath (University of Waterloo), T. Hasegawa, N. Koning, K. Volk, S. Torchinsky (University of Calgary), A. Hjalmarson, H. Olofsson (Onsala Space Observatory)
The Earth's atmosphere in the spectral region between 500-600 GHz is completely opague due the absorption of H2O and O2. The Odin satellite (Nordh et al. 2003), with 4 tunable submillimeter receivers between 486-581 GHz, is the first telescope capable of observing in this spectral region. In 2004, the Odin satellite performed a spectral scan of the Orion KL region in the frequency range 549.5-557.5 GHz and 563.9-572.6 GHz using the acousto-optical spectrometer and auto-correlator backends, respectively.
In this paper, we present the processing of the Odin Orion KL spectral data performed at the University of Calgary. After eye inspection and manual editing of data, the RMS noise in the averaged spectrum is typically <0.03 K. Preliminary analysis has resulted in first-time detections of many rotational transitions of the molecular species CO, SO, CN, NO, H2O, SO2, OCS, NH3, HC3N, HNCO, CH3OH, CH3CN, C2H5CN, CH3OCH3, CH3OCHO, as well as lines from their isotopic variants.
This work complements the previous ground-based spectral scans of Orion KL from 455 to 507 GHz at JCMT (White et al. 2003), and from 607 to 725 GHz at CSO (Schilke et al. 2001). Observations covering the remaining Odin spectral regions is onging.
Work on the Odin satellite in Canada was supported by the Canadian Space Agency and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the award of a Killam Fellowship to SK by the Canada Council for the Arts.
References
Nordh, H.L. et al. 2003, A&A, 402, L2
Schilke, P. et al. 2001, ApJS, 132, 281
White, G.J. et al. 2003, A&A, 407, 589
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.