Description¶

Class:: jwst.guider_cds.GuiderCdsStep
Alias:: guider_cds

The guider_cds step computes countrate images from the Correlated Double Sampling (CDS) detector readouts used in FGS guiding mode data. The exact way in which the countrate images are computed depends on the guiding mode (ID, ACQ1, ACQ2, TRACK, FineGuide) in use.

ID mode¶

The ID mode uses 2 integrations (NINTS=2) with 2 groups per integration (NGROUPS=2). For this mode the guider_cds step first computes a difference image for each integration by subtracting group 1 from group 2. A final difference image is then computed by taking the minimum value at each pixel from the 2 integrations. The minimum difference image is then divided by the group time to produce a countrate image. The output data array is 3D, with dimensions of (ncols x nrows x 1).

For this mode, the output ERR array has the same dimensions as the output data array. The values for the ERR array are calculated for each 2-group segment in each of the 2 integrations from the two variances of the slope of the segment.

The segment’s variance due to read noise is:

\[var^R = \frac{2 \ R^2 }{tgroup^2 } \,,\]

where \(R\) is the noise (using the default READNOISE pixel value) in the difference between the 2 groups and \(tgroup\) is the group time in seconds (from the keyword TGROUP).

The segment’s variance due to Poisson noise is:

\[var^P = \frac{ slope }{ tgroup \times gain } \,,\]

where \(gain\) is the gain for the pixel (using the default GAIN pixel value), in e/DN. The \(slope\) is the value of the pixel in the minimum difference image.

ACQ1, ACQ2, and TRACK modes¶

These modes use multiple integrations (NINTS>1) with 2 groups per integration (NGROUPS=2). For these modes the guider_cds step computes a countrate image for each integration, by subtracting group 1 from group 2 and dividing by the group time. The output data array is 3D, with dimensions of (ncols x nrows x nints).

For these modes, the values for the variances are calculated using the same equations as above for the ID mode, except :

\(slope\) is the slope of the pixel.
\(R\) is the noise from the READNOISE reference file, or the default READNOISE pixel value if the reference file is not accessible.
\(gain\) is the gain from the GAIN reference file, or the default GAIN pixel value if the reference file is not accessible.

FineGuide mode¶

The FineGuide mode uses many integrations (NINTS>>1) with 4 groups at the beginning and 4 groups at the end of each integration. The guider_cds step computes a countrate image for each integration by subtracting the average of the first 4 groups from the average of the last 4 groups and dividing by the group time. The output data array is 3D, with dimensions of (ncols x nrows x nints).

For this mode, the values for the variancesare calculated using the same equations as above for the ID mode, except \(slope\) is the slope of the pixel, averaged over all integrations.

All modes¶

For all of the above modes, the square-root of the sum of the Poisson variance and read noise variance is written to the ERR extension.

After successful completion of the step, the “BUNIT” keyword in the output data is updated to “DN/s” and the “S_GUICDS” keyword is set to “COMPLETE”.