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DOE OSTI2020

Solar Contamination in Extreme-precision Radial-velocity Measurements: Deleterious Effects and Prospects for Mitigation

Solar contamination, due to moonlight and atmospheric scattering of sunlight, can cause systematic errors in stellar radial velocity (RV) measurements that significantly detract from the ∼10 cm s{sup −1} sensitivity required for the detection and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets in or near habitable zones of Sun-like stars. The addition of low-level spectral contamination at variable effective velocity offsets introduces systematic noise when measuring velocities using classical mask-based or template-based cross-correlation techniques. Here we present simulations estimating the range of RV measurement error induced by uncorrected scattered sunlight contamination. We explore potential correction techniques, using both simultaneous spectrometer sky fibers and broadband imaging via coherent fiber imaging bundles, that could reliably reduce this source of error to below the photon-noise limit of typical stellar observations. We discuss the limitations of these simulations, the underlying assumptions, and mitigation mechanisms. We also present and discuss the components designed and built into the NEID (NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler spectroscopy) precision RV instrument for the WIYN 3.5 m telescope, to serve as an ongoing resource for the community to explore and evaluate correction techniques. We emphasize that while “bright time” has been traditionally adequate for RV science, the goal of 10 cm s{sup −1} precision on the most interesting exoplanetary systems may necessitate access to darker skies for these next-generation instruments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1991

Measuring earth orientation with the Global Positioning System

A globally distributed network of high-precision receivers which obtain data from the full Global Positioning System (GPS) configuration of 18 or more satellites may soon become an efficient and economical method for the rapid determination of short-term variations in earth orientation. A covariance analysis has been performed to evaluate the errors associated with GPS monitoring of earth orientation. Earth orientation parameters were modeled either as constants over observing windows of various lengths, or as stochastic process-noise variables. The sensitivity of earth orientation estimates to systematic errors in selected model parameters was also examined. GPS measurements appear to be highly competitive with those from other techniques, and have the potential to generate nearly continuous centimeter-level earth orientation information to aid both spacecraft navigation and the study of high-frequency earth orientation-related processes.

Freedman, Adam P.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Hyper Suprime-Cam Year 3 results: Cosmology from cosmic shear power spectra

Here, we measure weak lensing cosmic shear power spectra from the 3-year galaxy shear catalog of the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program imaging survey. The shear catalog covers 416 deg 2 of the northern sky, with a mean i-band seeing of 0.59 arcsec and an effective galaxy number density of 15 arcmin —2 within our adopted redshift range. With an i-band magnitude limit of 24.5 mag, and four tomographic redshift bins spanning 0.3 ≤ z ph ≤ 1.5 based on photometric redshifts, we obtain a high-significance measurement of the cosmic shear power spectra, with a signal-to-noise ratio of approximately 26.4 in the multipole range 300 < ℓ < 1800. The accuracy of our power spectrum measurement is tested against realistic mock shear catalogs, and we use these catalogs to get a reliable measurement of the covariance of the power spectrum measurements. We use a robust blinding procedure to avoid confirmation bias, and model various uncertainties and sources of bias in our analysis, including point spread function systematics, redshift distribution uncertainties, the intrinsic alignment of galaxies and the modeling of the matter power spectrum. For a flat Λ CDM model, we find S 8 ≡ σ 8 (Ω m /0.3) 0.5 = ${0.776}_{—0.033}^{+0.032}$, which is in excellent agreement with the constraints from the other HSC Year 3 cosmology analyses, as well as those from a number of other cosmic shear experiments. This result implies a ~2σ-level tension with the Planck 2018 cosmology. We study the effect that various systematic errors and modeling choices could have on this value, and find that they can shift the best-fit value of S 8 by no more than ~ 0.5σ, indicating that our result is robust to such systematics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2017

A Map of the Local Velocity Substructure in the Milky Way Disk

We confirm, quantify, and provide a table of the coherent velocity substructure of the Milky Way disk within 2 kpc of the Sun toward the Galactic anticenter, with a 0.2 kpc resolution. We use the radial velocities of ∼340,000 F-type stars obtained with the Guoshoujing Telescope (also known as the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, LAMOST), and proper motions derived from the PPMXL catalog. The PPMXL proper motions have been corrected to remove systematic errors by subtracting the average proper motions of galaxies and QSOs that have been confirmed in the LAMOST spectroscopic survey, and that are within 2.°5 of the star’s position. We provide the resulting table of systematic offsets derived from the PPMXL proper motion measurements of extragalactic objects identified in the LAMOST spectroscopic survey. Using the corrected phase-space stellar sample, we find statistically significant deviations in the bulk disk velocity of 20 km s{sup −1} or more in the three-dimensional velocities of Galactic disk stars. The bulk velocity varies significantly over length scales of half a kiloparsec or less. The rotation velocity of the disk increases by 20 km s{sup −1} from the Sun’s position to 1.5 kpc outside the solar circle. Disk stars in the second quadrant, within 1 kpc of the Sun, are moving radially toward the Galactic center and vertically toward a point a few tenths of a kiloparsec above the Galactic plane; looking down on the disk, the stars appear to move in a circular streaming motion with a radius of the order of 1 kpc.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1993

Prospects for VLBI Detection of Planets

The precision of astrometric VLBI measurements of radio-emitting stars has improved significantly during the past several years. For some stars whose radio flux density is only a few mJy the formal error and epoch-to-epoch scatter in position is approximately 200 - 600 micro-arcsec. The intrinsic signal/noise ratio in the data should allow a further order of magnitude improvement in astrometric precision as sources of systematic error are better understood and corrected. Wider bandwidth VLBI data recording systems currently under development will allow precisions of approximately 3 microarcsec if the measurements are limited by thermal noise. At this level planets with mass greater than or equal to 0.1 x M_(JUPITER) could be detected for the nearest radio-emitting stars.

Jones, D. L.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Overview of SIM external calibration

Like all astrometric instruments, the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) suffers from field-dependent errors requiring calibration. Diffraction effects in the delay line, polarization rotations on comer cubes, and beam walk across imperfect optics, all contribute to field-distortion that is significantly larger than is acceptable. The bulk of the systematic error is linear across the field - that is, it results in a magnification error. We show that the linear terms are inconsequential to the performance of SIM because they are inseparable from baseline length and orientation errors. One approach to calibrating the higher-order terms is to perform external' calibration; that is, SIM periodically makes differential measurements of a field of bright stars whose positions are not precisely known. We describe the requirements and constraints on the external calibration process and lay the groundwork for a specific procedure detailed in accompanying papers.

Space↗

DOE OSTI2024

Evaluation of Uncertainties of Pressure Gain Measurements in Rotating Detonation Combustor

Experimentally measuring the pressure gain of a rotating detonation combustor through the method of equivalent available pressure is prone to many experimental uncertainties. A detailed analysis of sources of random and systematic uncertainties in the thrust and pressure gain is performed using data from a hydrogen/air-operated rotating detonation combustor. The combustor had an axial air inlet and a 50% exit constriction. The measured (negative) pressure gain values agree with the results in the literature for similar inlet-to-exit area ratios. The base drag correction on the centerbody was found to be the greatest source of uncertainty for the thrust. While thrust is the predominant source of random uncertainty in the pressure gain calculation, significant systematic errors can be committed due to the assumed exit Mach number. The impact of this assumption becomes more detrimental the closer to positive the measured pressure gain is. By experimentally evaluating the exit Mach number, the random and systematic uncertainty in pressure gain both decreased, indicating that this should be an essential step. A definitive demonstration of gain is challenging, given the assessed uncertainties, and recommendations are provided to increase the precision of the equivalent available pressure methodology.

Engineering↗

NASA NTRS1985

Systematic and random variations in digital Thematic Mapper data

Radiance recorded by any remote sensing instrument will contain noise which will consist of both systematic and random variations. Systematic variations may be due to sun-target-sensor geometry, atmospheric conditions, and the interaction of the spectral characteristics of the sensor with those of upwelling radiance. Random variations in the data may be caused by variations in the nature and in the heterogeneity of the ground cover, by variations in atmospheric transmission, and by the interaction of these variations with the sensing device. It is important to be aware of the extent of random and systematic errors in recorded radiance data across ostensibly uniform ground areas in order to assess the impact on quantative image analysis procedures for both the single date and the multidate cases. It is the intention here to examine the systematic and the random variations in digital radiance data recorded in each band by the thematic mapper over crop areas which are ostensibly uniform and which are free from visible cloud.

Duggin, M. J.↗

DOE OSTI2019

Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect and X-ray Scaling Relations from Weak-Lensing Mass Calibration of 32 SPT Selected Galaxy Clusters

Uncertainty in mass-observable scaling relations is currently the limiting factor for galaxy-cluster-based cosmology. Weak gravitational lensing can provide direct mass calibration and reduce the mass uncertainty. We present new ground-based weak lensing observations of 19 South Pole Telescope (SPT) selected clusters at redshifts 0.29 <= z <= 0.61 and combine them with previously reported space-based observations of 13 galaxy clusters at redshifts 0.576 <= z <= 1.132 to constrain the cluster mass scaling relations with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE), the cluster gas mass M-gas and Y-X, the product of M-gas and X-ray temperature. We extend a previously used framework for the analysis of scaling relations and cosmological constraints obtained from SPT-selected clusters to make use of weak lensing information. We introduce a new approach to estimate the effective average redshift distribution of background galaxies and quantify a number of systematic errors affecting the weak lensing modelling. These errors include a calibration of the bias incurred by fitting a Navarro-Frenk-White profile to the reduced shear using N-body simulations. We blind the analysis to avoid confirmation bias. We are able to limit the systematic uncertainties to 5.6% in cluster mass (68% confidence). Our constraints on the mass-X-ray observable scaling relation parameters are consistent with those obtained by earlier studies and our constraints for the mass-SZE scaling relation are consistent with the simulation-based prior used in the most recent SPT-SZ cosmology analysis. We can now replace the external mass calibration priors used in previous SPT-SZ cosmology studies with a direct, internal calibration obtained for the same clusters.

cosmology: observations↗

DOE OSTI2015

Astrometry of Pluto from 1930-1951 observations: The Lampland plate collection

We present a new analysis of 843 photographic plates of Pluto taken by Carl Lampland at Lowell Observatory from 1930–1951. This large collection of plates contains useful astrometric information that improves our knowledge of Pluto's orbit. This improvement provides critical support to the impending flyby of Pluto by New Horizons. New Horizons can do inbound navigation of the system to improve its targeting. This navigation is capable of nearly eliminating the sky-plane errors but can do little to constrain the time of closest approach. Thus the focus on this work was to better determine Pluto's heliocentric distance and to determine the uncertainty on that distance with a particular eye to eliminating systematic errors that might have been previously unrecognized. This work adds 596 new astrometric measurements based on the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog 4. With the addition of these data the uncertainty of the estimated heliocentric position of Pluto in Developmental Ephemerides 432 (DE432) is at the level of 1000 km. This new analysis gives us more confidence that these estimations are accurate and are sufficient to support a successful flyby of Pluto by New Horizons.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Cosmological measurements with general relativistic galaxy correlations

We investigate the cosmological dependence and the constraining power of large-scale galaxy correlations, including all redshift-distortions, wide-angle, lensing and gravitational potential effects on linear scales. We analyze the cosmological information present in the lensing convergence and in the gravitational potential terms describing the so-called ''relativistic effects'', and we find that, while smaller than the information contained in intrinsic galaxy clustering, it is not negligible. We investigate how neglecting them does bias cosmological measurements performed by future spectroscopic and photometric large-scale surveys such as SKA and Euclid. We perform a Fisher analysis using the CLASS code, modified to include scale-dependent galaxy bias and redshift-dependent magnification and evolution bias. Our results show that neglecting relativistic terms, especially lensing convergence, introduces an error in the forecasted precision in measuring cosmological parameters of the order of a few tens of percent, in particular when measuring the matter content of the Universe and primordial non-Gaussianity parameters. The analysis suggests a possible substantial systematic error in cosmological parameter constraints. Therefore, we argue that radial correlations and integrated relativistic terms need to be taken into account when forecasting the constraining power of future large-scale number counts of galaxy surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Stellar chemical abundances: in pursuit of the highest achievable precision

The achievable level of precision on photospheric abundances of stars is a major limiting factor on investigations of exoplanet host star characteristics, the chemical histories of star clusters, and the evolution of the Milky Way and other galaxies. While model-induced errors can be minimized through the differential analysis of spectrally similar stars, the maximum achievable precision of this technique has been debated. As a test, we derive differential abundances of 19 elements from high-quality asteroid-reflected solar spectra taken using a variety of instruments and conditions. We treat the solar spectra as being from unknown stars and use the resulting differential abundances, which are expected to be zero, as a diagnostic of the error in our measurements. Our results indicate that the relative resolution of the target and reference spectra is a major consideration, with use of different instruments to obtain the two spectra leading to errors up to 0.04 dex. Use of the same instrument at different epochs for the two spectra has a much smaller effect (∼0.007 dex). The asteroid used to obtain the solar standard also has a negligible effect (∼0.006 dex). Assuming that systematic errors from the stellar model atmospheres have been minimized, as in the case of solar twins, we confirm that differential chemical abundances can be obtained at sub-0.01 dex precision with due care in the observations, data reduction, and abundance analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2002

Participation in the TOMS Science Team

Because of the nominal funding provided by this grant, some of the relevant research is partially funded by other sources. Research performed for this funding period included the following items: We have investigated errors in TOMS ozone measurements caused by the uncertainty in wavelength calibration, coupled with the ozone cross sections in the Huggins bands and their temperature dependence. Preliminary results show that 0.1 nm uncertainty in TOMS wavelength calibration at the ozone active wavelengths corresponds to approx. 1% systematic error in O3, and thus potential 1% biases among ozone trends from the various TOMS instruments. This conclusion will be revised for absolute O3 Measurements as cross sections are further investigated for inclusion in the HITRAN database at the SAO, but the potential for relative errors remains. In order to aid further comparisons among TOMS and GOME ozone measurements, we have implemented our method of direct fitting of GOME radiances (BOAS) for O3, and now obtain the best fitting precision to date for GOME O3 Columns. This will aid in future comparisons of the actual quantities measured and fitted for the two instrument types. We have made comparisons between GOME ICFA cloud fraction and cloud fraction determined from GOME data using the Ring effect in the Ca II lines. There is a strong correlation, as expected, but there are substantial systematic biases between the determinations. This study will be refined in the near future using the recently-developed GOME Cloud Retrieval Algorithm (GOMECAT). We have improved the SAO Ring effect determination to include better convolution with instrument transfer functions and inclusion of interferences by atmospheric absorbers (e.g., O3). This has been made available to the general community.

Chance, Kelly↗

NASA NTRS2021

Statistical Error Analysis on White-Light Filter Ratio Experiments to Measure Electron Parameters

The Filter ratio technique to remotely measure electron temperature and speed using four color filters in visible light and a polarization camera was described in detail in four articles by Reginald et al., Solar physics, (2018, 2019a, 2019b, 2020). In these four articles we quantified the systematic error associated with using models of symmetric corona to interpret results from asymmetric corona. We also showed the criteria applied to select the bandwidths of filters, and the pros and cons of replacing the traditional linear polarizer with a polarization camera to measure pB. What started in 1990s as ground experiments conducted during total solar eclipses that lasted for a few minutes lead to a balloon borne experiment lasting eight hours in 2019 and will blossom into a space experiment on the International Space Station in 2023. Due to constraints on the bandwidths of the four filters, a successful mission requires quantification of the statistical error using Monte Carlo simulation to generate two feasibility profiles, which are unique to the design parameters of the coronagraph, to comprehend the feasibility to measure temperature and speed within the desired temporal and spatial resolutions. For the statistical error analysis, we use modeled K and F corona profiles, representative theoretical diffraction, scattering, and vignetting profiles, assumed efficiencies for lenses, mirrors, and polarizers, assumed detector properties on quantum efficiency, full well depth, dark noise, and read noise, and assumed instrument properties on aperture diameter, solid angle, and pixel resolution. We hope future white-light coronagraphs will exhibit capabilities to measure electron density, temperature, and speed.

Nelson Reginald↗

NASA NTRS1988

Statistical corrections to the NMC medium range 700 mb height forecasts

This paper examines four statistical procedures for correcting the NMC medium-range forecast (MRF) errors in the 700-mb heights over the Northern Hemisphere. The tests were designed to include normal operational constraints, such as frequent changes in the forecast model and the lack of long-term forecast histories on which to base estimates of systematic errors and climate drifts. It was found that the two statistical procedures which provided a substantial reduction in mean square error were a procedure based on simple regression correction at each grid point and one based on lagged-average correction with one day lag at each grid point.

Schemm, Jae-Kyung E.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Directions of Moving Plaids is Biased by Asymmetric Viewing Windows

Directionally selective V1 neurons are tuned to particular spatio-temporal frequencies and respond to local 1-D edge motion. At least some MT neurons however appear to respond to the actual velocity of moving 2D patterns. To better understand how the 1D local motion information available from VI is integrated to derive a 2D velocity signal we investigated human perception of moving plaids, 2-D patterns composed of the sum of two 1-D sinusoidal gratings of different orientations. We measured the effect of the shape of the viewing window on the perceived direction of plaid motion. The plaids were spatially windowed by 2-D Gaussians with unequal standard deviations (sigma 1, sigma 2). Four observers indicated perceived direction by adjusting a pointer. Direction errors were measured as a function of the difference between window orientation and true plaid direction (DELTA THETA) for several grating spatial frequencies (SF = 0.3, 0.6, 1.2 c/d) and window aspect ratios (AR = sigma 1/sigma 2 = 1, 1.4, 2, 4). Observers showed systematic errors in perceived direction (approx. 15 for AR = 4 and SF = 0.6 c/d) that peaked at DELTA THETA approx. 40. The errors increased for increasing aspect ratio and decreased for increasing spatial frequencies (or number of cycles). These results show that despite the unambiguous motion of the plaids, under these conditions human misperceive the motion. These data constrain models of motion integration from V1 to MT and, in particular, are inconsistent with algorithms that use either the Intersection of Constraints rule or cross correlation to compute the perceived direction of motion.

Beutter, B. R.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Telescope Scientist on the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Observatory

This period included many scientific observations made with the Chandra Observatory. The results, as is well known, are spectacular. Fortunately, the High Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA) performance continues to be essentially identical to that predicted from ground calibration data. The Telescope Scientist Team has improved the mirror model to provide a more accurate description to the Chandra observers and enable them to reduce the systematic errors and uncertainties in their data reduction. We also have made considerable progress in improving the scattering model. There also has been progress in the scientific program. At this time 58 distant clusters of galaxies have been observed. We are performing a systematic analysis of this rather large data set for the purpose of determining absolute distances utilizing the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect. These observations also have been used to study the evolution of the cluster baryon mass function and the cosmological constraints which result from this evolution.

VanSpeybroeck, L.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Model independent comparison of supernova and strong lensing cosmography: Implications for the Hubble constant tension

We use supernovae measurements, calibrated by the local determination of the Hubble constant $H_0$ by SH0ES, to interpolate the distance-redshift relation using Gaussian process regression. We then predict, independent of the cosmological model, the distances that are measured with strong lensing time delays to test their mutual agreement. In this work we find excellent agreement between these predictions and the measurements. The agreement holds when we consider only the redshift dependence of the distance-redshift relation, independent of the value of $H_0$. Our results disfavor the possibility that lens mass modeling contributes a 10% bias or uncertainty in the strong lensing analysis, as suggested recently in the literature. In general our analysis strengthens the case that residual systematic errors in both measurements are below the level of the current discrepancy with the CMB determination of $H_0$, and supports the possibility of new physical phenomena on cosmological scales. With additional data our methodology can provide more stringent tests of unaccounted for systematics in the determinations of the distance-redshift relation in the late universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗