IRAM 30-meter Telescope Observing Capabilities and Organisational Considerations

Overview: The spectral line receiver EMIR (Eight MIxer Receiver) operates in the 3, 2, 1.3 and 0.9 mm atmospheric windows (Fig. 1). These four bands are designated as E 090, E 150, E 230, and E 330 according to their approximate center frequencies in GHz. Each band provides two orthogonal linear polarization channels tuned to the same frequency as they share a single common local oscillator. The eight individual receivers of EMIR are very well aligned with offsets below 2′′ between bands and below 1′′ between polarizations of any one band. EMIR offers very competitive noise temperatures and wide bandwidths. The band E 330 is offered for regular use under very good weather conditions (pwv< 2 mm). All EMIR bands are equipped with dual sideband (2SB) mixers that offer 8 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth per sideband and per polarization (Fig. 2). Table 1 lists the main characteristics of the EMIR receiver. A thorough description of the EMIR receiver is available in Carter et al. [14], and its users guide is available at the EMIR web page at: