Roman Instruments Home
The Instruments section contains documentation for how to use the Wide Field Instrument (WFI) of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The WFI Imaging Mode User Guide is relevant for a user planning for or analyzing WFI image data and is maintained by the Roman Science Operations Center at STScI. The WFI Spectroscopic Mode User Guide and all Coronagraph documentation is developed and maintained by the Roman Science Support Center at IPAC.
Below, these Photographs of the Roman Instruments provides visuals of the Roman Instruments being assembled.
Photographs of the Roman Instruments
Photographs of the Roman's Instrument that is still ongoing development and testing. On the left is a photograph of the Wide Field Instrument (WFI) after having arrived in a cleanroom at Ball Aerospace; instrument technicians on the far right are using the controls to remove the lifting hardware from the instrument (Image Credit: Ball Aerospace; Link to Original). On the right, NASA's Goddard WFI team members and the Ball Aerospace integration and test team pose with the WFI as its sub-components were installed at Ball Aerospace (Image Credit: Ball Aerospace; Link to Original).
Wide Field Instrument
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Wide Field Instrument (WFI) has the sensitivity and resolution comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope, but with a field of view 200 times greater than Hubble's infrared view, combining excellent image quality with survey power. WFI can be operated in imaging or spectroscopic mode.
WFI Imaging Mode User Guide
Visit the WFI Imaging Mode User Guide documentation page to learn more about the WFI imaging mode. The Table of Contents for this User Guide is given below.
WFI Spectroscopic Mode User Guide
Future RDox updates will include the WFI spectroscopic mode documentation developed by the SSC at IPAC. Visit the WFI Spectroscopic Mode User Guide page for resources and information.
WFI User Guides Table of Contents
Below is a listing of the articles in the WFI User Guides that are currently published in RDox.
Under Construction
The Roman Wide Field Instrument User Guides are currently being developed and written. Please note that some topics are not yet available, and that some details will change during ground testing and commissioning.
Coronagraph Technological Demonstration
The Coronagraph Instrument on Roman will be the first active coronagraph to operate in space. Unlike prior coronagraph technology, this Coronagraph has components, such as deformable mirrors, that are intended to respond to variables in real time to minimize light scatter and reach high-contrast ratios. Thus, the Coronagraph on Roman will serve as a demonstration of active coronagraphic technology for space-based astronomy.
Resources for the Coronagraph:
- the Roman Coronagraph Instrument Website hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and
- the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument Overview and Status (Bailey et al. 2023) proceedings for SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
More resources and documentation for the Coronagraph Instrument will be available in future RDox releases.
References
- Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument Overview and Status (Bailey et al. 2023)
For additional questions not answered in this article, please contact the Roman Help Desk at STScI.