NIRCam

NIRCam (for Near Infrared Camera) is an instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which images over a wavelength range of 0.6-5 μm, imaging a square field of view (FOV), 2.2 milliarcseconds on a side. It operates at 37 kelvins for the benefits in sensitivity. It offers an optional coronagraph as well as an optional grism for slitless spectrography. It actually consists of two identical cameras designated A and B, duplicated for the benefit of redundancy (JWST cannot be serviced), but also such that both can be used simultaneously, covering nearby fields of view (each FOV being 2.2 arcminutes square).

Also, each of these two identical cameras divides its incoming IR into two wavelength-ranges, each range with its own imager, shorter wavelengths being 0.6-2.3 μm and longer, 2.4-5 μm. These two imagers also operate simultaneously, but the pair image the identical FOV. The four imagers are designated ALONG, BLONG, ASHORT, and BSHORT (or AL, BL, AS, and BS).

Each of the four imagers offers a number of filters. Typical filter designators are used, much like those HST, their numbers in units of 10 nm, W for wide, M for medium, and N for narrow. Among them: F070W (≡ 700 nm), F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F212N, F187N, F210M, F182M, F140M, and F150W2 for the shorter wavelengths, and F277W, F356W, F444W, F300M, F480M, F410M, F360M, F430M, F460M, F250M, F355M, and F322W2 for the longer wavelengths.