Open AccessSelecting pixels for Kepler downlink
Author(s) -
Steve Bryson,
Jon M. Jenkins,
Todd C. Klaus,
Miles T. Cote,
Elisa V. Quintana,
Jennifer R. Hall,
Khadeejah A. Ibrahim,
Hema Chandrasekaran,
Douglas A. Caldwell,
Jeffrey E. Van Cleve,
Michael R. Haas
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
proceedings of spie, the international society for optical engineering/proceedings of spie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.192
H-Index - 176
eISSN - 1996-756X
pISSN - 0277-786X
DOI - 10.1117/12.857625
Subject(s) - pixel , cadence , spacecraft , computer science , brightness , bandwidth (computing) , telecommunications link , signal to noise ratio (imaging) , remote sensing , artificial intelligence , physics , computer vision , optics , astronomy , telecommunications , geology , acoustics
The Kepler mission monitors ~ 165, 000 stellar targets using 42 2200 × 1024 pixel CCDs. Onboard storage and bandwidth constraints prevent the storage and downlink of all 96 million pixels per 30-minute cadence, so the Kepler spacecraft downlinks a specified collection of pixels for each target. These pixels are selected by considering the object brightness, background and the signal-to-noise in each pixel, and maximizing the signal-to- noise ratio of the target. This paper describes pixel selection, creation of spacecraft apertures that efficiently capture selected pixels, and aperture assignment to a target. Engineering apertures, short-cadence targets and custom-specified shapes are discussed.
Accelerating Research
Robert Robinson Avenue,
Oxford Science Park, Oxford
OX4 4GP, United Kingdom
Address
John Eccles HouseRobert Robinson Avenue,
Oxford Science Park, Oxford
OX4 4GP, United Kingdom