Planck early results. III. First assessment of the Low Frequency Instrument in-flight performance ^⋆

¹ Aalto University Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Metsähovintie 114, 02540 Kylmälä, Finland
² Agenzia Spaziale Italiana Science Data Center, c/o ESRIN, via Galileo Galilei, Frascati, Italy
³ Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, viale Liegi 26, Roma, Italy
⁴ Astroparticule et Cosmologie, CNRS (UMR7164), Université Denis Diderot Paris 7, Bâtiment Condorcet, 10 rue A. Domon et Léonie Duquet, Paris, France
⁵ Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
⁶ CNRS, IRAP, 9 Av. Colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁷ California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
⁸ Centre of Mathematics for Applications, University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo, Norway
⁹ DA-Design Oy, Keskuskatu 29, Jokioinen, Finland
¹⁰ DTU Space, National Space Institute, Juliane Mariesvej 30, Copenhagen, Denmark
¹¹ Departamento de Física, Universidad de Oviedo, Avda. Calvo Sotelo s/n, Oviedo, Spain
¹² Departamento de Ingeniería de Comunicaciones, Universidad de Cantabria, Plaza de la Ciencia, 39005 Santander, Spain
¹³ Departamento de Matemáticas, Estadística y Computación, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, Santander, Spain
¹⁴ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
¹⁶ Department of Physics, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2a, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
¹⁷ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
¹⁸ Department of Physics, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California, USA
¹⁹ Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
²⁰ Dipartimento di Fisica G. Galilei, Università degli Studi di Padova, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
²¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università La Sapienza, P. le A. Moro 2, Roma, Italy
²² Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria, 16, Milano, Italy
e-mail: aniello.mennella@fisica.unimi.it
²³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Trieste, via A. Valerio 2, Trieste, Italy
²⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Ferrara, via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
²⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica, 1, Roma, Italy
²⁶ Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica, 1, Roma, Italy
²⁷ Dpto. Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
²⁸ European Space Agency, ESAC, Planck Science Office, Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanización Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Ca nada, Madrid, Spain
²⁹ European Space Agency, ESOC, Robert-Bosch-Str. 5, Darmstadt, Germany
³⁰ European Space Agency, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
³¹ Haverford College Astronomy Department, 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, Pennsylvania, USA
³² Helsinki Institute of Physics, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
³³ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, Firenze, Italy
³⁴ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico diCatania, via S. Sofia 78, Catania, Italy
³⁵ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, Padova, Italy
³⁶ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
³⁷ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G.B. Tiepolo 11, Trieste, Italy
³⁸ INAF/IASF Bologna, via Gobetti 101, Bologna, Italy
³⁹ INAF/IASF Milano, via E. Bassini 15, Milano, Italy
⁴⁰ ISDC Data Centre for Astrophysics, University of Geneva, Ch. d’Écogia 16, Versoix, Switzerland
⁴¹ Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁴² Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS (UMR 8617) Université Paris-Sud 11, Bâtiment 121, Orsay, France
⁴³ Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS UMR 7095, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, Paris, France
⁴⁴ Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
⁴⁵ Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo, Norway
⁴⁶ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/vía Láctea s/n, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁴⁷ Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-Universidad de Cantabria), Avda. de los Castros s/n, Santander, Spain
⁴⁸ Istituto di Fisica del Plasma, CNR-ENEA-EURATOM Association, via R. Cozzi 53, Milano, Italy
⁴⁹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA
⁵⁰ Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
⁵¹ LERMA, CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, 61 avenue de l’Observatoire, Paris, France
⁵² Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
⁵³ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85741 Garching, Germany
⁵⁴ MilliLab, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tietotie 3, Espoo, Finland
⁵⁵ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville VA 22903-2475, USA
⁵⁶ Nokia Corporation, Itämerenkatu 11-13, Helsinki, Finland
⁵⁷ SISSA, Astrophysics Sector, via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy
⁵⁸ School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, Sackville Street Building, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
⁵⁹ Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
⁶⁰ Spitzer Science Center, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, California, USA
⁶¹ Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A., S.S. Padana Superiore 290, 20090 Vimodrone (MI), Italy
⁶² Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁶³ Warsaw University Observatory, Aleje Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland

Received: 9 January 2011
Accepted: 9 May 2011

Abstract

The scientific performance of the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) after one year of in-orbit operation is presented. We describe the main optical parameters and discuss photometric calibration, white noise sensitivity, and noise properties. A preliminary evaluation of the impact of the main systematic effects is presented. For each of the performance parameters, we outline the methods used to obtain them from the flight data and provide a comparison with pre-launch ground assessments, which are essentially confirmed in flight.