Kepler instrument performance: an in-flight update

@inproceedings{Caldwell2010KeplerIP,
  title={Kepler instrument performance: an in-flight update},
  author={Douglas A. Caldwell and Jeffrey E. van Cleve and Jon M. Jenkins and Vic S. Argabright and Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak and Edward Wood Dunham and John Charles Geary and Peter Tenenbaum and Hema Chandrasekaran and Jie Li and Hayley Wu and Jason Von Wilpert},
  booktitle={Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation},
  year={2010}
}
The Kepler Mission is designed to detect the 80 parts per million (ppm) signal from an Earth-Sun equivalent transit. Such precision requires superb instrument stability on time scales up to 2 days and systematic error removal to better than 20 ppm. The sole scientific instrument is the Photometer, a 0.95 m aperture Schmidt telescope that feeds the 94.6 million pixel CCD detector array, which contains both Science and Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) CCDs. Since Kepler's launch in March 2009, we have… 
View on SPIE
zenodo.org
25 Citations
Background Citations
11
Methods Citations
4

25 Citations

In-flight photometric performance of the 96Mpx focal plane array assembly for NASA's Kepler exoplanet mission
Kepler is NASA's first space mission dedicated to the study of exoplanets. The primary scientific goal is statistical - to estimate the frequency of planetary systems associated with sun-like stars.…
A framework for propagation of uncertainties in the Kepler data analysis pipeline
TLDR
A novel framework used to implement standard Propagation of Uncertainties (POU) in the Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) data processing pipeline and the SVD compression scheme is presented, allowing the downstream consumer access to the full covariance matrix of any subset of calibrated pixels which is traceable to the pixel-level measurement uncertainties.
Optical performance of the 100-sq deg field-of-view telescope for NASA's Kepler exoplanet mission
Kepler is NASA's first space mission dedicated to the study of exoplanets. The primary scientific goal is statistical - to estimate the frequency of planetary systems associated with sun-like stars,…
Flagging and correction of pattern noise in the Kepler focal plane array
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"),…
Telescope with 100 square degree field-of-view for NASA’s Kepler mission
Abstract. Kepler is NASA’s first space mission dedicated to the study of exoplanets. The primary scientific goal is statistical—to estimate the frequency of planetary systems associated with sun-like…
The Kepler Mission: Zeroing in on habitable Earths
NASA's Kepler Mission was launched on March 6, 2009 with the goal of determining the frequency of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars using the transit photometry method.…
Processing and managing the Kepler mission's treasure trove of stellar and exoplanet data
  • J. Jenkins
  • Physics, Geology
    2016 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data)
  • 2016
TLDR
How the design of the Kepler Science Operations Center meets varied challenges is described, the architecture of the SOC and how the SOC pipeline is operated and is run on the NAS Pleiades supercomputer are discussed, and the most important pipeline features addressing the multiple computational, image and signal processing challenges posed by Kepler are summarized.
Kepler Data Validation I—Architecture, Diagnostic Tests, and Data Products for Vetting Transiting Planet Candidates
TLDR
The Kepler Pipeline has been modified to support the TESS Mission which will commence in 2018, and the DV architecture and diagnostic tests, and a brief overview of the data products are described.
Optical design trade study for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope [WFIRST]
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission concept was ranked first in new space astrophysics mission by the Astro2010 Decadal Survey incorporating the Joint Dark Energy Mission…
KEPLER'S FIRST ROCKY PLANET: KEPLER-10b
NASA's Kepler Mission uses transit photometry to determine the frequency of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The mission reached a milestone toward meeting that…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 12 REFERENCES
INSTRUMENT PERFORMANCE IN KEPLER's FIRST MONTHS
The Kepler Mission relies on precise differential photometry to detect the 80 parts per million (ppm) signal from an Earth–Sun equivalent transit. Such precision requires superb instrument stability…
Flagging and correction of pattern noise in the Kepler focal plane array
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"),…
The Kepler Pixel Response Function
Kepler seeks to detect sequences of transits of Earth-size exoplanets orbiting solar-like stars. Such transit signals are on the order of 100 ppm. The high photometric precision demanded by Kepler…
Kepler Mission Design, Realized Photometric Performance, and Early Science
The Kepler Mission, launched on 2009 March 6, was designed with the explicit capability to detect Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars using the transit photometry method.…
Initial Characteristics of Kepler Long Cadence Data for Detecting Transiting Planets
The Kepler Mission seeks to detect Earth-size planets transiting solar-like stars in its ∼115 deg2 field of view over the course of its 3.5 year primary mission by monitoring the brightness of each…
Linearity and High Signal‐to‐Noise Performance of the STIS CCD
On‐orbit data characteristics of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) CCD aboard the Hubble Space Telescope have been explored with early calibrations in a number of limiting conditions.…
Transiting planet search in the Kepler pipeline
The Kepler Mission simultaneously measures the brightness of more than 160,000 stars every 29.4 minutes over a 3.5-year mission to search for transiting planets. Detecting transits is a…
Kepler’s Optical Phase Curve of the Exoplanet HAT-P-7b
TLDR
The Kepler mission is performing at the level required to detect Earth-size planets orbiting solar-type stars, including data for the previously known giant transiting exoplanet HAT-P-7b, which shows a smooth rise and fall of light from the planet as it orbits its star, punctuated by a drop when the planet passes behind its star.
Photometer performance assessment in Kepler science data processing
TLDR
The algorithms of the Photometer Performance Assessment software component in the Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) Science Processing Pipeline are described, which demonstrates the capability to work effectively with the Kepler flight data.
Kepler Planet-Detection Mission: Introduction and First Results
TLDR
The planetary findings derived from the first six weeks of observations with the Kepler mission are summarized, which include the detection of five new exoplanets, which confirm the existence of planets with densities substantially lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.
...
...