SCALA: In situ calibration for integral field spectrographs

Lombardo, Simona; Küsters, D.; Kowalski, M.; Aldering, G.; Antilogus, P.; Bailey, S.; Baltay, C.; Barbary, Kyle; Baugh, D.; Bongard, S.; Boone, K.; Buton, C.; Chen, J.; Chotard, N.; Copin, Y.; Dixon, S.; Fagrelius, Parker; Feindt, U.; Fouchez, D.; Gangler, É.; Hayden, Brian; Hillebrandt, W.; Hoffmann, A. P.; Kim, Alex; Léget, P.-F.; McKay, L.; Nordin, J.; Pain, R.; Pécontal, É.; Pereira, R.; Perlmutter, S.; Rabinowitz, D.; Reif, K.; Rigault, M.; Rubin, D.; Runge, K.; Saunders, C.; Smadja, G.; Suzuki, N.; Taubenberger, S.; Tao, C.; Thomas, R. C.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201731076

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Examples of proposed strategies are diffusion on a screen (Stubbs et al 2007(Stubbs et al , 2010Tonry et al 2012;Marshall et al 2013;Ferguson et al 2020) and diffusion in a sphere of short light pulses (Coughlin et al 2018). The most advanced experiment to date (Lombardo et al 2017;Küsters 2019;Küsters et al 2020) uses a combination of diffusion in integrating spheres together with extremely sensitive calibrated photodiodes (Küsters et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

StarDICE

Betoule

Antier

Bertin³

et al. 2023

A&A

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Context. The Hubble diagram of type-Ia supernovae (SNe-Ia) provides cosmological constraints on the nature of dark energy with an accuracy limited by the flux calibration of currently available spectrophotometric standards. This motivates new developments to improve the link between existing astrophysical flux standards and laboratory standards. Aims. The StarDICE experiment aims to establish a five-stage metrology chain from NIST photodiodes to stars, with a targeted accuracy of 1 mmag in griz colors. We present the first two stages, resulting in the calibration transfer from NIST photodiodes to a demonstration 150 Mpixel CMOS sensor (Sony IMX411ALR as implemented in the QHY411M camera by QHYCCD). As a sideproduct, we provide full characterization of this camera, which we believe to be of potential interest in astronomical imaging and photometry and specifically discuss its use in the context of gravitational wave optical follow-up. Methods. A fully automated spectrophotometric bench was built to perform the calibration transfer. The sensor readout electronics was studied using thousands of flat-field images from which we derived stability, high-resolution photon transfer curves, and estimates of the individual pixel gain. The sensor quantum efficiency was then measured relatively to a NIST-calibrated photodiode, in a welldefined monochromatic light beam from 375 to 1078 nm. Last, flat-field scans at 16 different wavelengths were used to build maps of the sensor response, fully characterizing the sensor for absolute photometric measurements. Results. We demonstrated statistical uncertainty on quantum efficiency below 0.001 e − /γ between 387 nm and 950 nm, the range being limited by the sensitivity decline of the tested sensor in the infrared. Systematic uncertainties in the bench optics are controlled at the level of 1 × 10 −3 e − /γ. Linearity issues are detected at the level of 5 × 10 −3 e − /γ for the tested camera and require further developments to fully correct. Uncertainty in the overall normalization of the quantum efficiency curve (without relevance for the cosmology, but relevant to evaluate the performance of the camera itself) is 1%. Regarding the camera we demonstrate stability in steady state conditions at the level of 32.5 ppm. Homogeneity in the response is below 1 % RMS across the entire sensor area. Quantum efficiency stays above 50 % in most of the visible range, peaking well above 80 % between 440 nm and 570 nm. Differential nonlinearities at the level of 1 % are detected. A simple two-parameter model is proposed to mitigate the effect and found to adequately correct the shape of the PTC on half the numerical scale. No significant deviations from integral linearity were detected in our limited test. Static and dynamical correlations between pixels are low, making the device likely suitable for galaxy shape measurements.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

StarDICE

Betoule

Antier

Bertin³

et al. 2023

A&A

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“…comm. ), COSMOS (Martini et al 2014), Binospec (Fabricant et al 2019), X-Shooter (Vernet et al 2011), DBSP (Oke & Gunn 1982), EFOSC2, which is part of PESSTO (Smartt et al 2015), SNIFS (Lantz et al 2004;Lombardo et al 2017), and SEDM (Blagorodnova et al 2018). Figure supplied by E. Kirby.…”

Section: Spectroscopic Facilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards An Integrated Optical Transient Utility

Kulkarni¹

2020

Preprint

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The ongoing optical time-domain astronomy surveys are routinely reporting fifty transient candidates per night. Here, I investigate the demographics of astronomical transients and supernova classifications reported to the Transient Name Server in the year 2019. I find that only a tenth of the transients were spectrally classified. This severe "bottleneck" problem should concern astronomers and also funding agencies. The bottleneck will get worse by a factor of 20 (or more) once LSST comes on line. We need to fundamentally rethink the purpose of surveys for transients. Here, after undertaking a detailed investigation of this issue I offer some solutions. Going forward, astronomers will employ two different methodologies: (1) multi-band photometric method which is well suited to the study of very large, many tens of thousands, samples of faint transients; (2) spectral classifications of thousands of bright transients found in shallow and nightly cadenced wide-field photometry surveys and transients associated with galaxies in the local Universe. The latter program, in addition to unearthing new types of transients and offering astronomers opportunities to undertake extensive follow up of interesting transients, is needed to set the stage for the former. Specifically, I suggest a globally coordinated effort to spectrally classify a complete sample of bright supernovae ( 19.5 mag) and transients within the local Universe (< 200 Mpc). The proposed program is within reach -thanks to the on-going widefield surveys, the development of novel spectrographs tuned for classification, great improvements in throughput of spectrographs and the increasing availability of robotic telescopes.

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“…Further details of the instrument can be found in Aldering et al (2002); Lantz et al (2004); Aldering et al (in prep.). To further improve the calibration, we note that the SNIFS CALibration Apparatus (SCALA; Küsters et al 2016;Lombardo et al 2017;Küsters 2019) has been constructed and installed so that eventually the SNIFS calibration can be referenced to a NIST-calibrated detector.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uniform Recalibration of Common Spectrophotometry Standard Stars onto the CALSPEC System using the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph

Rubin¹,

G.²,

Antilogus³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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We calibrate spectrophotometric optical spectra of 32 stars commonly used as standard stars, referenced to 14 stars already on the HST-based CALSPEC flux system. Observations of CALSPEC and non-CALSPEC stars were obtained with the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph over the wavelength range 3300 Å to 9400 Å as calibration for the Nearby Supernova Factory cosmology experiment. In total, this analysis used 4289 standardstar spectra taken on photometric nights. As a modern cosmology analysis, all pre-submission methodological decisions were made with the flux scale and external comparison results blinded. The large number of spectra per star allows us to treat the wavelength-by-wavelength calibration for all nights simultaneously with a Bayesian hierarchical model, thereby enabling a consistent treatment of the Type Ia supernova cosmology analysis and the calibration on which it critically relies. We determine the typical per-observation repeatability (median 14 mmag for exposures 5 s), the Maunakea atmospheric transmission distribution (median dispersion of 7 mmag with uncertainty 1 mmag), and the scatter internal to our CALSPEC reference stars (median of 8 mmag). We also check our standards against literature filter photometry, finding generally good agreement over the full 12-magnitude range. Overall, the mean of our system is calibrated to the mean of CALSPEC at the level of ∼ 3 mmag. With our large number of observations, careful crosschecks, and 14 reference stars, our

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SCALA: In situ calibration for integral field spectrographs

Cited by 13 publications

References 24 publications

StarDICE

StarDICE

Towards An Integrated Optical Transient Utility

Uniform Recalibration of Common Spectrophotometry Standard Stars onto the CALSPEC System using the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph

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