Filter Simulations for the SPICA MIRACLE Instrument in Combination with SAFARI

¹ Space Science and Technology Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK
² Department of Physics, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 1B1, Canada
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
⁴ Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias, Tenerife
⁵ Cardiff University, School of Physics Astronomy, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK

Abstract

The Mid-Infra-Red Camera w/o LEns (MIRACLE) instrument is the proposed imaging camera for one of the the focal plane instruments on SPICA covering the wavelength range from 5-38 microns. Sub-micro-Jansky sensitivities are expected at wavelengths shortward of 10 microns, and sensitivities of the order of a few micro-Jy in the 10 – 40 micron range. We present an initial investigation of the possible narrow filter combinations for MIRACLE, and the advantages of using MIRACLE and SAFARI in tandem to obtain photometric redshifts of high redshift sources. We apply our photometric redshift code that utilizes only the infrared spectra of the target sources and that can successfully and accurately constrain the redshift of our samples over the redshift z ~ 1–5. We find that the addition of the SAFARI bands usually improves greatly the photo-z accuracy at redshifts z > 2, extending out to redshifts of z = 5.