Dynamic Wisp Removal in JWST NIRCam Images

TL;DR

This paper presents a dynamic method to effectively remove variable wisp artifacts from JWST NIRCam images using reference images, improving image quality and reducing noise.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel dynamic wisp removal technique that adapts to the variability of wisps using long-wavelength reference images, outperforming static templates.

Findings

Significant visual improvements in detector frames.

Reduced noise in final stacked images.

Effective mitigation of variable wisps in JWST data.

Abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) near-infrared camera (NIRCam) has been found to exhibit serious wisp-like structures in four of its eight short-wavelength detectors. The exact structure and strength of these wisps is highly variable with the position and orientation of JWST, so the use of static templates is non-optimal. Here we investigate a dynamic strategy to mitigate these wisps using long-wavelength reference images. Based on a suite of experiments where we embed a worst-case scenario median-stacked wisp into wisp-free images, we define suitable parameters for our wisp removal strategy. Using this setup we re-process wisp-affected public Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) data in the North Ecliptic Pole Time Domain Field (NEP-TDF), resulting in significant visual improvement in our detector frames and reduced noise in the final stacked images.