WFI Optical Elements
The Wide Field Instrument (WFI) has a number of optical elements that are used for imaging and dispersive/spectroscopic scientific applications. The properties of these elements are described below.
Element Wheel Assembly
The Wide Field Instrument (WFI) optical element wheel houses a set of eight imaging filters, two spectral dispersers, and a blank position, which are collectively referred to as optical elements (sometimes simply shortened to elements). The Figure of the Element Wheel Assembly with the Optical Elements Labelled presents the Element Wheel Assembly and shows the order of the optical elements.
The properties of the optical elements are described below in Table of Properties for Imaging Elements for imaging and Table of Properties for Dispersive Elements for spectroscopy. Refer the section on Bandpass Column Definitions for the equations that define each column in Table of Properties for Imaging Elements.
The blank position is not described in detail, however this is only rarely used for certain internal calibration modes, and is referred to as DARK in both the Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) and in WFI data products. In APT, the DARK element is normally excluded from the list of select-able optical elements except for certain observing specifications (see the Calibration article in the Roman APT User Guide for examples of these modes). The effective area curve information comes from the Excel spreadsheet available from the Goddard Space Flight Center Reference Information page for the WFI.
Imaging Elements
The Table of Properties for Imaging Elements contains the detailed filter properties for each the imaging elements and the Figure of Properties for Imaging Elements displays the throughput curves (effective area) for each of the imaging elements.
Analogous filters from other systems are listed for informational purposes only. The WFI optical elements do not perfectly correspond to any of these other filters, and care should be taken to understand the differences between the WFI photometric system and other systems.
Table of Properties for Imaging Elements
Optical Element | Mean Wavelength | Pivot Wavelength | Bandpass Width (µm) | Bandpass FWHM (µm) | Bandpass RMS (µm) | Equivalent Width (µm) | Analogous Ground |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
F062 | 0.6340 | 0.6291 | 0.0788 | 0.1856 | 0.0773 | 0.1243 | R |
F087 | 0.8719 | 0.8696 | 0.0633 | 0.1490 | 0.0632 | 0.1272 | z |
F106 | 1.0595 | 1.0567 | 0.0774 | 0.1823 | 0.0777 | 0.1632 | Y |
F129 | 1.2936 | 1.2901 | 0.0942 | 0.2219 | 0.0945 | 0.2022 | J |
F146 | 1.4724 | 1.4378 | 0.3052 | 0.7188 | 0.3104 | 0.6854 | |
F158 | 1.5791 | 1.5749 | 0.1152 | 0.2712 | 0.1154 | 0.2549 | H |
F184 | 1.8418 | 1.8394 | 0.0939 | 0.2210 | 0.0940 | 0.1966 | H/K |
F213 | 2.1255 | 2.1230 | 0.1038 | 0.2443 | 0.1039 | 0.2181 | Ks |
Dispersive Elements
The Table of Properties for Dispersive Elements contains the optical properties of the prism and grism, while Table of Properties for Dispersive Elements displays the effective area curves of the grism first order and of the prism. Throughput information for other orders is not available at this time, but may be provided in the future.
Table of Properties for Dispersive Elements
Optical Element | Minimum Wavelength | Maximum Wavelength | Center Wavelength | Width | R |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grism | 1.0 | 1.93 | 1.465 | 0.930 | 461 |
Prism | 0.75 | 1.80 | 1.275 | 1.05 | 80 – 180 |
Bandpass Column Definitions
The columns in Table of Properties for Imaging Elements cab be computed using synphot (STScI Development Team, 2018), and are defined in the documentation as the following equations. In the equations below, P_\lambda refers to the dimensionless bandpass throughput at a given wavelength \lambda.
Mean wavelength (synphot.bandpass.avgwave()
) is the average wavelength defined in Koornneef et al. (1986) on page 836:
\lambda_0 = \dfrac{\int P_\lambda \lambda\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}{\int P_\lambda\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}. |
Pivot wavelength (synphot.bandpass.pivot()
):
\lambda_{\mathrm{pivot}} = \left[\dfrac{\int P_\lambda \lambda\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}{\displaystyle\int\left(\dfrac{P_\lambda}{\lambda}\right)\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}\right]^{1/2}. |
Bandpass width (synphot.bandpass.photbw()
):
\mathrm{bw} = \bar{\lambda}\ \left[\dfrac{\displaystyle\int\left(\dfrac{P_\lambda}{\lambda}\right)\ln\left(\dfrac{\lambda}{\bar{\lambda}}\right)\ \mathrm{d}\lambda} {\displaystyle\int\left(\dfrac{P_\lambda}{\lambda}\right)\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}\right]^{1/2}, |
where \bar{\lambda} is the mean log wavelength (synphot.bandpass.barlam()
) from Schneider, Gunn, and Hoessel (1983), which is defined as:
\bar{\lambda} = \exp\ \left[\dfrac{\displaystyle\int\left(\dfrac{P_\lambda}{\lambda}\right)\ln(\lambda)^2\ \mathrm{d}\lambda} {\displaystyle\int\left(\dfrac{P_\lambda}{\lambda}\right)\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}\right]. |
Bandpass full-width half-max (FWHM; synphot.bandpass.fwhm()
):
\mathrm{fwhm} = \mathrm{bw}\ \left[8\log(2)\right]^{1/2}, |
where bw is the bandpass width defined above.
Bandpass root mean square (RMS) width (synphot.bandpass.rmswidth()
), which is defined in Koornneef et al. (1986) on page 836:
\lambda_{\mathrm{rms}} = \left[ \dfrac{\int P_\lambda\left(\lambda - \lambda_0\right)^2\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}{\int P_\lambda\ \mathrm{d}\lambda}\right]^{1/2}, |
where \lambda_0 is the bandpass average wavelength defined above.
Bandpass equivalent width (synphot.bandpass.equivwidth()
):
\mathrm{eqw} = \int P_\lambda\ \mathrm{d}\lambda. |
For additional questions not answered in this article, please contact the Roman Help Desk at STScI.
References
- "Synthetic photometry and the calibration of the Hubble Space Telescope.", Koornneef, J. et al. 1986
- "CCD photometry of Abell clusters. I. Magnitudes and redshifts for 84 brightest cluster galaxies.", Schneider, D. P., Gunn, J. E., and Hoessel, J. G. 1983
- Roman Space Telescope Reference Information, maintained by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- STScI Development Team 2018, Astrophysics Source Code Library. ascl:1811.001 https://ascl.net/1811.001