A “strange” unit radio astronomy
$begingroup$
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.
radio-astronomy units
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
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.
radio-astronomy units
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
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.
radio-astronomy units
$endgroup$
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
radio-astronomy units
edited 6 hours ago
Jim421616
asked 6 hours ago
Jim421616Jim421616
574211
574211
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
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.
$endgroup$
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
6 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
1 hour 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♦
51 mins ago
add a comment |
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
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
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
$begingroup$
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.
$endgroup$
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
6 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
1 hour 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♦
51 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
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.
$endgroup$
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
6 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
1 hour 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♦
51 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
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.
$endgroup$
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.
edited 49 mins ago
answered 6 hours ago
HDE 226868♦HDE 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
6 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
1 hour 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♦
51 mins ago
add a comment |
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
6 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
1 hour 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♦
51 mins 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
6 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
6 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
1 hour 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
1 hour 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♦
51 mins 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♦
51 mins ago
add a comment |
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.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
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
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
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