Continuum Calibration

The description above assumes that the source signal comes only from the (so-called) signal sideband. This is of course not true for continuum radiation. If we neglect spectral index effects, one can derive the proper calibration of a continuum source from the description above. $Tcal$ should be multiplied by

  $\displaystyle \frac{1}{1 + Gain\_i * e^{(Tau\_s - Tau\_i) * Air\_mass}}
$ (15)

Similarly for spectral line observations, if you are interested in the image band, $Tcal$ should be multiplied by

  $\displaystyle e^{ (Tau\_i - Tau\_s) * Air\_mass} / Gain\_i
$ (16)