Correction of the VIR-Visible data set from the Dawn mission

TL;DR

This paper presents an empirical correction method for VIR-Visible data from the Dawn mission, addressing temperature-induced spectral distortions to enable consistent analysis across different mission phases.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel temperature correction technique for VIR-Visible data, improving spectral accuracy by accounting for sensor temperature variations during the Dawn mission.

Findings

Correction reduces spectral artifacts caused by temperature fluctuations.

Enables reliable comparison of data across different mission phases.

Improves the quality of surface mapping of Ceres.

Abstract

Data acquired at Ceres by the visible channel of the Visible and InfraRed mapping spectrometer (VIR) on board the NASA Dawn spacecraft are affected by the temperatures of both the visible (VIS) and the infrared (IR) sensors, which are respectively a CCD and a HgCdTe array. The variations of the visible channel temperatures measured during the sessions of acquisitions are correlated with variations in the spectral slope and shape for all the mission phases. The infrared channel (IR) temperature is more stable during the acquisitions, nonetheless it is characterized by a bi-modal distribution whether the cryocooler (and therefore the IR channel) is used or not during the visible channel operations. When the infrared channel temperature is high (175K, i.e. not in use and with crycooler off), an additional negative slope and a distortion are observed in the spectra of the visible channel. We developed an empirical correction based on a reference spectrum for the whole data set; it is designed to correct the two issues related to the sensor temperatures that we have identified. The reference spectrum is calculated to be representative of the global Ceres' surface. It is also made of data acquired when the visible and infrared channel temperatures are equal to the ones measured during an observation of the Arcturus star by VIR, which is consistent with several ground-based observations. The developed correction allows reliable analysis and mapping to be performed by minimizing the artifacts induced by fluctuations of the VIS temperature. Thanks to this correction, a direct comparison between different mission phases during which VIR experienced different visible and infrared channel temperatures is now possible.