{"id":951,"date":"2014-07-11T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.10.99\/KES\/?p=951"},"modified":"2016-10-04T20:12:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T20:12:56","slug":"getting-ready-for-the-2015-pluto-encounter-2014-summers-annual-checkout-brings-high-data-payoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/2014\/07\/11\/getting-ready-for-the-2015-pluto-encounter-2014-summers-annual-checkout-brings-high-data-payoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting ready for the 2015 Pluto encounter. 2014 summer\u2019s annual checkout brings high data payoff."},"content":{"rendered":"

Reposted from\u00a0http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/News-Center\/Science-Shorts.php?page=ScienceShorts_07_11_2014.<\/a><\/p>\n

You walk up to the Restaurant at the End of the Solar System, ready to try that slice of \u201cPluto on ice\u201d that you heard amazing things about. The chef behind the counter asks, \u201cSo, how would you like your data? \u201c Without hesitation, you reply \u201cWell calibrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretty pictures or spectra make no sense \u201cwithout context.\u201d For images, we need to know how many kilometers map to a pixel and for each raw digitized value, a mapping from bits to energy units (like magnitude or ergs\/cm^2\/s). For spectra, we need to know how much spatial information is covered per pixel plus what each pixel\u2019s response to wavelength and brightness is. For particle instruments, we need to what energy and from which direction that ion or dust grain came.<\/p>\n

Before launch every New Horizons instrument underwent intensive laboratory characterization: \u201cpre-flight calibration.\u201d They were subject to spatial targets, integrating spheres, laser pulses, particle accelerators, to name a few good \u201cknown\u201d sources, to get \u201ctranslations\u201d from bits stored to disk to \u201creal\u201d units like wavelength, flux energy, intensity, etc. After launch such \u201ctranslations\u201d were verified with \u201cin-orbit\u201d calibrations, where, for example, instead of a lab source, the instruments stared at stars or inspected Jupiter and its moons. Each year, the team executes an ACO, or Annual Check-Out, where instrument performances are trended and teams look for changes. Additional observations provide information to remove \u201cunwanted artifacts\u201d like hot-pixels, readout smearing, ghosts, etc.<\/p>\n

Summer 2014 is ACO-8, our 8th<\/sup> annual checkout since launch. It showcases our last calibrations prior to the 2015 Pluto encounter. It\u2019s jammed packed with observations that are done yearly for trending, but also some new ones to make sure the New Horizons instrument suite is \u201cwell calibrated.\u201d Highlights include new radiometric calibrations for the LEISA IR spectrometer, a long stability test for the REX radio experiment, and a test for revised thresholds for PEPSSI, the high-energy particle detector. More calibration data is taken during the 2015 Pluto fly-by, and together, these data sets are placed in the data reduction pipeline to translate bits to \u201creal\u201d values. Resources and time aboard the spacecraft to execute these observations are limited, so a series of reviews and assessments are done prior to each checkout.<\/p>\n

The team is eager to get the data from ACO-8. We wake up June 15th<\/sup>. After a similar series of spacecraft subsystem checkouts, the New Horizons payload calibrations begin and continue through August. It may not be the Pluto fly-by, but this summer\u2019s data will play a big role in the science return from New Horizons next year!<\/p>\n

\"jupiter-nh-calibrated\"<\/p>\n

Demonstration of read-out smear removal, preserving the photon count, in LORRI\u2019s calibration pipeline. The data in the smear is caused by imperfections in the CCD readout when illuminated by a lot of light. The source of the photons is from the object being imaged, so we need to correctly relocate the information. Data without good calibration is messy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a New Horizons deputy project scientist, Kimberly Ennico<\/strong> manages instrument readiness and calibration aspects of the mission. Her expertise includes instrument development, space qualification and calibration; optical\/infrared astronomy; optical\/infrared detectors, optics, cameras and spectrometers; and science communication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reposted from\u00a0http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/News-Center\/Science-Shorts.php?page=ScienceShorts_07_11_2014. You walk up to the Restaurant at the End of the Solar System, ready to try that slice of \u201cPluto on ice\u201d that you heard amazing things about. The chef behind the counter asks, \u201cSo, how would you like your data? \u201c Without hesitation, you reply \u201cWell calibrated.\u201d Pretty pictures or spectra make … Continue reading Getting ready for the 2015 Pluto encounter. 2014 summer\u2019s annual checkout brings high data payoff.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9,8],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}