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This paper documents image artifacts found in data from SPHEREx, NASA's infrared all-sky survey mission that uses six HAWAII-2RG detectors to map the sky in 102 spectral channels. The research team analyzed first-survey flight data and identified various low-level electrical and optical artifacts including cosmic ray effects, crosstalk between detector elements, and unresponsive pixels, some of which were predicted from laboratory testing while others were unexpected in the flight environment. The authors describe mitigation and masking strategies developed for the science data pipeline to address these artifacts.
Why it matters
Understanding and mitigating detector artifacts is critical for ensuring the scientific accuracy of SPHEREx's spectrophotometric survey data. The findings and mitigation strategies presented are also valuable for other space missions that employ HAWAII-2RG detectors, providing practical guidance for instrument design and data processing pipelines.
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⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
Dieser Artikel wurde noch nicht von unabhängigen Experten begutachtet. Die Ergebnisse sind vorläufig und sollten mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.
Abstract: SPHEREx, NASA’s all-sky spectrophotometric survey mission, maps the sky in 102 spectral channels from 0.75 um to 5.0 um at 6.15” resolution from low-Earth orbit using a custom readout of six HAWAII-2RG detectors. The SPHEREx instrument team and Science Data Center have built a robust science data pipeline that includes mitigating image-space artifacts arising from low-level optical and electronic effects. Analysis of first-survey flight data has confirmed predictions for some of these effects, determined differences between the laboratory and flight predictions in others, and even found new artifacts that were unanticipated. This paper will summarize our current understanding of artifacts in SPHEREx images, including image-space artifacts resulting from cosmic rays, crosstalk and unresponsive pixels. We also present mitigation and/or masking strategies implemented to mitigate such effects, and an assessment of the possible implications for other space missions using HAWAII-2RG detectors.
Source: A bestiary of low-level electrical artifacts in SPHEREx flight data