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Paper: Mitigating Radiation Damage Effects in the HST/ WFC3 UVIS Detectors
Volume: 521, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XXVI
Page: 454
Authors: Baggett, S.; Sosey, M.; Anderson, J.
Abstract: CCD detectors in low-Earth orbit are known to suffer from accumulating radiation damage and the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3) is no exception. In WFC3/UVIS, the damage produces a growing hot-pixel population along with charge traps that cause a progressive loss in charge-transfer efficiency (CTE) over time. The CTE decline results in both a reduction of the detected source fluxes as well as a systematic shift in the measured source centroids, and the impact can be substantial, particularly for faint sources in low-background images. We summarize the state of the radiation-damage effects in WFC3/UVIS and discuss the available mitigation options, with a focus on the algorithm and software that comprise the pixel-based CTE correction available in the WFC3 calibration pipeline as of March 2016.
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