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Register a new userAn improved model of Charge Transfer Inefficiency and correction algorithm for the Hubble Space Telescope
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Richard Massey
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Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) detectors, widely used to obtain digital imaging, can be damaged by high energy radiation. Degraded images appear blurred, because of an effect known as Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI), which trails bright objects as the image is read out. It is often possible to correct most of the trailing during post-processing, by moving flux back to where it belongs. We compare several popular algorithms for this: quantifying the effect of their physical assumptions and tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. We combine their best elements to construct a more accurate model of damaged CCDs in the Hubble Space Telescopes Advanced Camera for Surveys/Wide Field Channel, and update it using data up to early 2013. Our algorithm now corrects 98% of CTI trailing in science exposures, a substantial improvement over previous work. Further progress will be fundamentally limited by the presence of read noise. Read noise is added after charge transfer so does not get trailed - but it is incorrectly untrailed during post-processing.
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Radiation damage to space-based Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) detectors creates defects which result in an increasing Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) that causes spurious image trailing. Most of the trailing can be corrected during post-processing, by modelling the charge trapping and moving electrons back to where they belong. However, such correction is not perfect -- and damage is continuing to accumulate in orbit. To aid future development, we quantify the limitations of current approaches, and determine where imperfect knowledge of model parameters most degrade measurements of photometry and morphology. As a concrete application, we simulate $1.5times10^{9}$ worst case galaxy and $1.5times10^{8}$ star images to test the performance of the Euclid visual instrument detectors. There are two separable challenges: If the model used to correct CTI is perfectly the same as that used to add CTI, $99.68$ % of spurious ellipticity is corrected in our setup. This is because readout noise is not subject to CTI, but gets over-corrected during correction. Second, if we assume the first issue to be solved, knowledge of the charge trap density within $Deltarho/rho!=!(0.0272pm0.0005)$ %, and the characteristic release time of the dominant species to be known within $Deltatau/tau!=!(0.0400pm0.0004)$ % will be required. This work presents the next level of definition of in-orbit CTI calibration procedures for Euclid.
We present experimental studies on the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) of charge-coupled device (CCD) developed for the soft X-ray imaging telescope, Xtend, aboard the XRISM satellite. The CCD is equipped with a charge injection (CI) capability, in which sacrificial charge is periodically injected to fill the charge traps. By evaluating the re-emission of the trapped charge observed behind the CI rows, we find that there are at least three trap populations with different time constants. The traps with the shortest time constant, which is equivalent to a transfer time of approximately one pixel, are mainly responsible for the trailing charge of an X-ray event seen in the following pixel. A comparison of the trailing charge in two clocking modes reveals that the CTI depends not only on the transfer time but also on the area, namely the imaging or storage area. We construct a new CTI model with taking into account with both transfer-time and area dependence. This model reproduces the data obtained in both clocking modes consistently. We also examine apparent flux dependence of the CTI observed without the CI technique. The higher incident X-ray flux is, the lower the CTI value becomes. It is due to a sacrificial charge effect by another X-ray photon. This effect is found to be negligible when the CI technique is used.
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been the most impactful science-driven mission ever flown by NASA. However, when HST reaches the end of its life, there will be a void due to the loss of some of the science capabilities afforded by HST to astronomers world-wide. The previous 2010 Decadal Survey (DS) noted this void, arguing for the need for a successor to HST with UV capabilities in three separate places in the main report (pp. 190, 203, and 220). The large strategic missions that will follow HST, namely JWST and WFIRST, will continue to spark the interest of the public in space-based astronomy. In order to ensure continued US preeminence in the arena of large space-based astrophysics missions, and a seamless transition after WFIRST, a future flagship mission must be waiting in the wings. Anticipating this need, NASA initiated four large strategic mission concept studies (HabEx, LUVOIR, Lynx, and Origins), which have mature designs, including detailed technology assessments and development plans. Two of these concepts, HabEx and LUVOIR, are responsive to the recommendations of the previous DS regarding a UV-capable mission. Both are more powerful successors to HST, with UV-to-optical capabilities that range from significant enhancements to orders-of-magnitude improvement. At the same time, technological and scientific advances over the past decade only now make it feasible to marry such a mission with one that can search for life outside the solar system. Acknowledging that the constraints that the Astro2020 DS must consider may be difficult to anticipate, the HabEx and LUVOIR studies present eleven different variants, each of which enable groundbreaking science, including the direct imaging and characterization of exoplanets. The HabEx and LUVOIR mission studies offer a full suite of options to the Astro2020 DS, with corresponding flexibility in budgeting and phasing.
The coronagraphic instrument currently proposed for the WFIRST-AFTA mission will be the first example of a space-based coronagraph optimized for extremely high contrasts that are required for the direct imaging of exoplanets reflecting the light of their host star. While the design of this instrument is still in progress, this early stage of development is a particularly beneficial time to consider the operation of such an instrument. In this paper, we review current or planned operations on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with a focus on which operational aspects will have relevance to the planned WFIRST-AFTA coronagraphic instrument. We identify five key aspects of operations that will require attention: 1) detector health and evolution, 2) wavefront control, 3) observing strategies/post-processing, 4) astrometric precision/target acquisition, and 5) polarimetry. We make suggestions on a path forward for each of these items.
The Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is a radio interferometer for research in cosmology, currently operating 7 0.6m diameter antennas co-mounted on a 6m diameter platform driven by a hexapod mount. AMiBA is currently the largest hexapod telescope. We briefly summarize the hexapod operation with the current pointing error model. We then focus on the upcoming 13-element expansion with its potential difficulties and solutions. Photogrammetry measurements of the platform reveal deformations at a level which can affect the optical pointing and the receiver radio phase. In order to prepare for the 13-element upgrade, two optical telescopes are installed on the platform to correlate optical pointing tests. Being mounted on different locations, the residuals of the two sets of pointing errors show a characteristic phase and amplitude difference as a function of the platform deformation pattern. These results depend on the telescopes azimuth, elevation and polarization position. An analytical model for the deformation is derived in order to separate the local deformation induced error from the real hexapod pointing error. Similarly, we demonstrate that the deformation induced radio phase error can be reliably modeled and calibrated, which allows us to recover the ideal synthesized beam in amplitude and shape of up to 90% or more. The resulting array efficiency and its limits are discussed based on the derived errors.
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