Flagging and correction of pattern noise in the Kepler focal plane array

Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak; Douglas A. Caldwell; Jeffery E. Van Cleve; Bruce D. Clarke; Jon M. Jenkins; Miles T. Cote; Todd C. Klaus; Vic S. Argabright

doi:10.1117/12.857637

22 July 2010 Flagging and correction of pattern noise in the Kepler focal plane array

Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Douglas A. Caldwell, Jeffery E. Van Cleve, Bruce D. Clarke, Jon M. Jenkins, Miles T. Cote, Todd C. Klaus, Vic S. Argabright

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7742, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy IV; 77421G (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857637
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

In order for Kepler to achieve its required <20 PPM photometric precision for magnitude 12 and brighter stars, instrument-induced variations in the CCD readout bias pattern (our "2D black image"), which are either fixed or slowly varying in time, must be identified and the corresponding pixels either corrected or removed from further data processing. The two principle sources of these readout bias variations are crosstalk between the 84 science CCDs and the 4 fine guidance sensor (FGS) CCDs and a high frequency amplifier oscillation on <40% of the CCD readout channels. The crosstalk produces a synchronous pattern in the 2D black image with time-variation observed in <10% of individual pixel bias histories. We will describe a method of removing the crosstalk signal using continuously-collected data from masked and over-clocked image regions (our "collateral data"), and occasionally-collected full-frame images and reverse-clocked readout signals. We use this same set to detect regions affected by the oscillating amplifiers. The oscillations manifest as time-varying moiré pattern and rolling bands in the affected channels. Because this effect reduces the performance in only a small fraction of the array at any given time, we have developed an approach for flagging suspect data. The flags will provide the necessary means to resolve any potential ambiguity between instrument-induced variations and real photometric variations in a target time series. We will also evaluate the effectiveness of these techniques using flight data from background and selected target pixels.

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Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Douglas A. Caldwell, Jeffery E. Van Cleve, Bruce D. Clarke, Jon M. Jenkins, Miles T. Cote, Todd C. Klaus, and Vic S. Argabright "Flagging and correction of pattern noise in the Kepler focal plane array", Proc. SPIE 7742, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy IV, 77421G (22 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857637

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