What is the frequency for 22ghz water masers?

For the 22 GHz water maser (H₂O) line, the laboratory rest frequency is approximately:

22.23508 GHz = 22,235.08 MHz

Astronomical maser emission is Doppler shifted by the motion of the source and Earth. A useful conversion at 22.235 GHz is:

1 km/s ≈ 74.2 kHz

So the approximate received frequencies are:

Radial velocity Approx. frequency

−200 km/s 22.2499 GHz

−100 km/s 22.2425 GHz

−50 km/s 22.2388 GHz

0 km/s 22.2351 GHz

+50 km/s 22.2314 GHz

+100 km/s 22.2277 GHz

+200 km/s 22.2203 GHz

For Galactic star-forming-region water masers, a receiver covering roughly 22.220–22.250 GHz gives a generous ±200 km/s window. Many well-known sources occupy a much narrower range.

For your observations of sources such as W49, W3(OH), Orion KL, W51, etc., I can give you the actual expected frequency range for each source, including the LSR velocity range and the frequency you should tune your SDR to with your Norsat 9000LDF.

By Admin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.