Spectroscopic flat-fields can be used for precision CCD gain and noise tests

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to accurately determine CCD gain and noise using spectroscopic flat-fields with variable illumination, eliminating the need for uniform flat-field illumination in complex spectroscopic setups.

Contribution

It demonstrates that spectroscopic flat-fields with varying signals can be used for precise CCD gain and noise measurements, even in non-uniform illumination conditions.

Findings

Accurate CCD gain can be derived from variable flat-field exposures.

CCD readout noise can be measured from bias frames once gain is known.

Spatial shifts in flat-fields can be corrected for reliable analysis.

Abstract

One of the basic parameters of a CCD camera is its gain, i.e. the number of detected electrons per output Analogue to Digital Unit (ADU). This is normally determined by finding the statistical variances from a series of flat-field exposures with nearly constant levels over substantial areas, and making use of the fact that photon (Poisson) noise has variance equal to the mean. However, when a CCD has been installed in a spectroscopic instrument fed by numerous optical fibres, or with an echelle format, it is no longer possible to obtain illumination that is constant over large areas. Instead of making do with selected small areas, it is shown here that the wide variation of signal level in a spectroscopic `flat-field' can be used to obtain accurate values of the CCD gain, needing only a matched pair of exposures (that differ in their realisation of the noise). Once the gain is known, the CCD readout noise (in electrons) is easily found from a pair of bias frames. Spatial stability of the image in the two flat-fields is important, although correction of minor shifts is shown to be possible, at the expense of further analysis.