A “strange” unit radio astronomy2SB mixer in radio astronomy?Why does radio astronomy offer higher...

How do I construct an nxn matrix?

Equivalent to "source" in OpenBSD?

CBP Reminds Travelers to Allow 72 Hours for ESTA. Why?

Called into a meeting and told we are being made redundant (laid off) and "not to share outside". Can I tell my partner?

Which aircraft had such a luxurious-looking navigator's station?

It took me a lot of time to make this, pls like. (YouTube Comments #1)

You'll find me clean when something is full

How can atoms be electrically neutral when there is a difference in the positions of the charges?

How would we write a misogynistic character without offending people?

When was drinking water recognized as crucial in marathon running?

Can you use a beast's innate abilities while polymorphed?

Why is working on the same position for more than 15 years not a red flag?

What are these green text/line displays shown during the livestream of Crew Dragon's approach to dock with the ISS?

When should a commit not be version tagged?

Why does the 31P{1H} NMR spectrum of cis-[Mo(CO)2(dppe)2] show two signals?

Is divide-by-zero a security vulnerability?

Is there any relevance to Thor getting his hair cut other than comedic value?

Understanding Kramnik's play in game 1 of Candidates 2018

Did 5.25" floppies undergo a change in magnetic coating?

What is a term for a function that when called repeatedly, has the same effect as calling once?

Linear regression when Y is bounded and discrete

"Murder!" The knight said

Avoiding unpacking an array when altering its dimension

Skis versus snow shoes - when to choose which for travelling the backcountry?



A “strange” unit radio astronomy


2SB mixer in radio astronomy?Why does radio astronomy offer higher resolution images than optical?Radio Astronomy and ImagingWould Adaptive Optics be Useful in Radio Astronomy?Help with homwork - AstronomyHow big a dish do I need for radio astronomy?Strange behaviour of black holesDifferent radio process band rangesUnits in optical and radio spectral data cubes: Flux vs BrightnessWhy does the author believe that the central mass that gas cloud HCN-0.009-0.044 orbits is smaller than our solar system?













3












$begingroup$


I'm reading up on radio astronomy, and I came across this paper from 1964. At the bottom of page 193, the author uses a unit that I've not seen before in discussing radio power emission from stars:




Now the outbursts on the Sun give an intensity on Earth of $10^{19}$ to $10^{20}$ $wm^{-2}(c/s)^{-1}$




I'm guessing it's "Watts per square meter per something per second", but I'm not sure what the something is.



A similar unit appears in this paper on the first line on page 364:




The comparison band in the radiometer, being separated approximately 3.25 Mc from the signal band, never encounters the hydrogen range of frequencies.




Again, this looks to me like megasomething. Can anyone shed some light on this?



On page 362 of the second paper, the unit appears as $(Watts/M^2
)/(C/S)$
as a unit of flux. There, the $C$ looks like coulombs, but that makes the $3.25 Mc$ in the second quote seem weird.










share|improve this question











$endgroup$

















    3












    $begingroup$


    I'm reading up on radio astronomy, and I came across this paper from 1964. At the bottom of page 193, the author uses a unit that I've not seen before in discussing radio power emission from stars:




    Now the outbursts on the Sun give an intensity on Earth of $10^{19}$ to $10^{20}$ $wm^{-2}(c/s)^{-1}$




    I'm guessing it's "Watts per square meter per something per second", but I'm not sure what the something is.



    A similar unit appears in this paper on the first line on page 364:




    The comparison band in the radiometer, being separated approximately 3.25 Mc from the signal band, never encounters the hydrogen range of frequencies.




    Again, this looks to me like megasomething. Can anyone shed some light on this?



    On page 362 of the second paper, the unit appears as $(Watts/M^2
    )/(C/S)$
    as a unit of flux. There, the $C$ looks like coulombs, but that makes the $3.25 Mc$ in the second quote seem weird.










    share|improve this question











    $endgroup$















      3












      3








      3





      $begingroup$


      I'm reading up on radio astronomy, and I came across this paper from 1964. At the bottom of page 193, the author uses a unit that I've not seen before in discussing radio power emission from stars:




      Now the outbursts on the Sun give an intensity on Earth of $10^{19}$ to $10^{20}$ $wm^{-2}(c/s)^{-1}$




      I'm guessing it's "Watts per square meter per something per second", but I'm not sure what the something is.



      A similar unit appears in this paper on the first line on page 364:




      The comparison band in the radiometer, being separated approximately 3.25 Mc from the signal band, never encounters the hydrogen range of frequencies.




      Again, this looks to me like megasomething. Can anyone shed some light on this?



      On page 362 of the second paper, the unit appears as $(Watts/M^2
      )/(C/S)$
      as a unit of flux. There, the $C$ looks like coulombs, but that makes the $3.25 Mc$ in the second quote seem weird.










      share|improve this question











      $endgroup$




      I'm reading up on radio astronomy, and I came across this paper from 1964. At the bottom of page 193, the author uses a unit that I've not seen before in discussing radio power emission from stars:




      Now the outbursts on the Sun give an intensity on Earth of $10^{19}$ to $10^{20}$ $wm^{-2}(c/s)^{-1}$




      I'm guessing it's "Watts per square meter per something per second", but I'm not sure what the something is.



      A similar unit appears in this paper on the first line on page 364:




      The comparison band in the radiometer, being separated approximately 3.25 Mc from the signal band, never encounters the hydrogen range of frequencies.




      Again, this looks to me like megasomething. Can anyone shed some light on this?



      On page 362 of the second paper, the unit appears as $(Watts/M^2
      )/(C/S)$
      as a unit of flux. There, the $C$ looks like coulombs, but that makes the $3.25 Mc$ in the second quote seem weird.







      radio-astronomy units






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 7 hours ago







      Jim421616

















      asked 7 hours ago









      Jim421616Jim421616

      579211




      579211






















          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          6












          $begingroup$

          I would expect the authors to be talking about the signal in terms of janskys, the now-commonly-used units of flux density. The typical definition is
          $$1text{ Jansky}=10^{-26}text{ Watts meters}^{-2}text{ Hertz}^{-1}$$
          One Hertz is one cycle per second, which makes me suspect that the "c" stands for cycle. It might seem curious that the authors choose to use cycles/second instead of Hertz, but as the papers were published in 1964 and 1955, and the Hertz was only adopted on a large scale in 1964, the older term "cycles per second" is more fitting, given the time period.






          share|improve this answer











          $endgroup$









          • 2




            $begingroup$
            The fact that they are from older papers makes me agree with you, that it's an old convention. Jansky is consistent with flux. Thanks!
            $endgroup$
            – Jim421616
            7 hours ago






          • 2




            $begingroup$
            I hadn't seen c/s before, but cps (cycles per second) was certainly a common abbreviation back in the olden days (and people would commonly refer to radio frequencies in units of kilocycles and megacycles, dropping the "seconds" entirely). When the SI was introduced in 1960, everyone standardised on Hz (even in the US!)
            $endgroup$
            – Michael MacAskill
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            $begingroup$
            @MichaelMacAskill Yeah, considering when the Hertz was adopted makes the non-use of Hertz here make a lot more sense.
            $endgroup$
            – HDE 226868
            1 hour ago













          Your Answer





          StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
          return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
          StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
          StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
          });
          });
          }, "mathjax-editing");

          StackExchange.ready(function() {
          var channelOptions = {
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "514"
          };
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
          createEditor();
          });
          }
          else {
          createEditor();
          }
          });

          function createEditor() {
          StackExchange.prepareEditor({
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
          convertImagesToLinks: false,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: null,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader: {
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          },
          noCode: true, onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          });


          }
          });














          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fastronomy.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f29863%2fa-strange-unit-radio-astronomy%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown

























          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes








          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes









          6












          $begingroup$

          I would expect the authors to be talking about the signal in terms of janskys, the now-commonly-used units of flux density. The typical definition is
          $$1text{ Jansky}=10^{-26}text{ Watts meters}^{-2}text{ Hertz}^{-1}$$
          One Hertz is one cycle per second, which makes me suspect that the "c" stands for cycle. It might seem curious that the authors choose to use cycles/second instead of Hertz, but as the papers were published in 1964 and 1955, and the Hertz was only adopted on a large scale in 1964, the older term "cycles per second" is more fitting, given the time period.






          share|improve this answer











          $endgroup$









          • 2




            $begingroup$
            The fact that they are from older papers makes me agree with you, that it's an old convention. Jansky is consistent with flux. Thanks!
            $endgroup$
            – Jim421616
            7 hours ago






          • 2




            $begingroup$
            I hadn't seen c/s before, but cps (cycles per second) was certainly a common abbreviation back in the olden days (and people would commonly refer to radio frequencies in units of kilocycles and megacycles, dropping the "seconds" entirely). When the SI was introduced in 1960, everyone standardised on Hz (even in the US!)
            $endgroup$
            – Michael MacAskill
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            $begingroup$
            @MichaelMacAskill Yeah, considering when the Hertz was adopted makes the non-use of Hertz here make a lot more sense.
            $endgroup$
            – HDE 226868
            1 hour ago


















          6












          $begingroup$

          I would expect the authors to be talking about the signal in terms of janskys, the now-commonly-used units of flux density. The typical definition is
          $$1text{ Jansky}=10^{-26}text{ Watts meters}^{-2}text{ Hertz}^{-1}$$
          One Hertz is one cycle per second, which makes me suspect that the "c" stands for cycle. It might seem curious that the authors choose to use cycles/second instead of Hertz, but as the papers were published in 1964 and 1955, and the Hertz was only adopted on a large scale in 1964, the older term "cycles per second" is more fitting, given the time period.






          share|improve this answer











          $endgroup$









          • 2




            $begingroup$
            The fact that they are from older papers makes me agree with you, that it's an old convention. Jansky is consistent with flux. Thanks!
            $endgroup$
            – Jim421616
            7 hours ago






          • 2




            $begingroup$
            I hadn't seen c/s before, but cps (cycles per second) was certainly a common abbreviation back in the olden days (and people would commonly refer to radio frequencies in units of kilocycles and megacycles, dropping the "seconds" entirely). When the SI was introduced in 1960, everyone standardised on Hz (even in the US!)
            $endgroup$
            – Michael MacAskill
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            $begingroup$
            @MichaelMacAskill Yeah, considering when the Hertz was adopted makes the non-use of Hertz here make a lot more sense.
            $endgroup$
            – HDE 226868
            1 hour ago
















          6












          6








          6





          $begingroup$

          I would expect the authors to be talking about the signal in terms of janskys, the now-commonly-used units of flux density. The typical definition is
          $$1text{ Jansky}=10^{-26}text{ Watts meters}^{-2}text{ Hertz}^{-1}$$
          One Hertz is one cycle per second, which makes me suspect that the "c" stands for cycle. It might seem curious that the authors choose to use cycles/second instead of Hertz, but as the papers were published in 1964 and 1955, and the Hertz was only adopted on a large scale in 1964, the older term "cycles per second" is more fitting, given the time period.






          share|improve this answer











          $endgroup$



          I would expect the authors to be talking about the signal in terms of janskys, the now-commonly-used units of flux density. The typical definition is
          $$1text{ Jansky}=10^{-26}text{ Watts meters}^{-2}text{ Hertz}^{-1}$$
          One Hertz is one cycle per second, which makes me suspect that the "c" stands for cycle. It might seem curious that the authors choose to use cycles/second instead of Hertz, but as the papers were published in 1964 and 1955, and the Hertz was only adopted on a large scale in 1964, the older term "cycles per second" is more fitting, given the time period.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited 1 hour ago

























          answered 7 hours ago









          HDE 226868HDE 226868

          20k265125




          20k265125








          • 2




            $begingroup$
            The fact that they are from older papers makes me agree with you, that it's an old convention. Jansky is consistent with flux. Thanks!
            $endgroup$
            – Jim421616
            7 hours ago






          • 2




            $begingroup$
            I hadn't seen c/s before, but cps (cycles per second) was certainly a common abbreviation back in the olden days (and people would commonly refer to radio frequencies in units of kilocycles and megacycles, dropping the "seconds" entirely). When the SI was introduced in 1960, everyone standardised on Hz (even in the US!)
            $endgroup$
            – Michael MacAskill
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            $begingroup$
            @MichaelMacAskill Yeah, considering when the Hertz was adopted makes the non-use of Hertz here make a lot more sense.
            $endgroup$
            – HDE 226868
            1 hour ago
















          • 2




            $begingroup$
            The fact that they are from older papers makes me agree with you, that it's an old convention. Jansky is consistent with flux. Thanks!
            $endgroup$
            – Jim421616
            7 hours ago






          • 2




            $begingroup$
            I hadn't seen c/s before, but cps (cycles per second) was certainly a common abbreviation back in the olden days (and people would commonly refer to radio frequencies in units of kilocycles and megacycles, dropping the "seconds" entirely). When the SI was introduced in 1960, everyone standardised on Hz (even in the US!)
            $endgroup$
            – Michael MacAskill
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            $begingroup$
            @MichaelMacAskill Yeah, considering when the Hertz was adopted makes the non-use of Hertz here make a lot more sense.
            $endgroup$
            – HDE 226868
            1 hour ago










          2




          2




          $begingroup$
          The fact that they are from older papers makes me agree with you, that it's an old convention. Jansky is consistent with flux. Thanks!
          $endgroup$
          – Jim421616
          7 hours ago




          $begingroup$
          The fact that they are from older papers makes me agree with you, that it's an old convention. Jansky is consistent with flux. Thanks!
          $endgroup$
          – Jim421616
          7 hours ago




          2




          2




          $begingroup$
          I hadn't seen c/s before, but cps (cycles per second) was certainly a common abbreviation back in the olden days (and people would commonly refer to radio frequencies in units of kilocycles and megacycles, dropping the "seconds" entirely). When the SI was introduced in 1960, everyone standardised on Hz (even in the US!)
          $endgroup$
          – Michael MacAskill
          2 hours ago






          $begingroup$
          I hadn't seen c/s before, but cps (cycles per second) was certainly a common abbreviation back in the olden days (and people would commonly refer to radio frequencies in units of kilocycles and megacycles, dropping the "seconds" entirely). When the SI was introduced in 1960, everyone standardised on Hz (even in the US!)
          $endgroup$
          – Michael MacAskill
          2 hours ago






          1




          1




          $begingroup$
          @MichaelMacAskill Yeah, considering when the Hertz was adopted makes the non-use of Hertz here make a lot more sense.
          $endgroup$
          – HDE 226868
          1 hour ago






          $begingroup$
          @MichaelMacAskill Yeah, considering when the Hertz was adopted makes the non-use of Hertz here make a lot more sense.
          $endgroup$
          – HDE 226868
          1 hour ago




















          draft saved

          draft discarded




















































          Thanks for contributing an answer to Astronomy Stack Exchange!


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fastronomy.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f29863%2fa-strange-unit-radio-astronomy%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown







          Popular posts from this blog

          Why do type traits not work with types in namespace scope?What are POD types in C++?Why can templates only be...

          Will tsunami waves travel forever if there was no land?Why do tsunami waves begin with the water flowing away...

          Should I use Docker or LXD?How to cache (more) data on SSD/RAM to avoid spin up?Unable to get Windows File...