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Title: Improvements to the image processing of HST NICMOS observationswith multiple readouts

Journal Article · · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
OSTI ID:886609

We report on improvements made to the standard NICMOS processing pipeline. The calculation of the uncertainties on the signal accumulation rate has been modified to include the statistical correlations between the consecutive readouts. In order to correct a problem with the existing cosmic ray rejection algorithm, we have developed and implemented a joint fit procedure, where the accumulating signal is fit as linear functions of time with the same rate both before and after the cosmic ray (CR) impact. We also accounted for inter-pixel correlations in the CR-affected region. The new processing is most relevant for deep observations of faint targets, and for PSF fitting, for which unbiased measurements of accurate error estimates are important. We show examples of these improvements for deep NIC2 images of high-redshift supernova from the Supernova Cosmology Project.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Director, Office of Science. Office of High Energy andNuclear Physics. Division of High Energy Physics; National Aeronauticsand Space Administration
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-05CH11231; NASA:NAS 5-26555
OSTI ID:
886609
Report Number(s):
LBNL-58024; PASPAU; R&D Project: PSUOPS; BnR: KA1301020; TRN: US200616%%952
Journal Information:
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 118; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 07/2006; ISSN 0004-6280
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English