WFC3/IR Starter Guide

TL;DR

This guide provides an overview of analyzing archival WFC3/IR data from the MAST archive, aimed at first-time or refresher users, including instrument details, calculation examples, and terminology.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive starting point for WFC3/IR data analysis, focusing on archival data and including useful appendices for new users.

Findings

Summarizes WFC3/IR instrument and data analysis procedures

Includes practical examples from Exposure Time Calculator

Provides glossary of acronyms for clarity

Abstract

In this starter guide, we provide a high-level overview of analysis of WFC3/IR data available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). We intend this guide as a starting point for users examining WFC3/IR data for the first time, or for those refreshing their memory on WFC3/IR data analysis. Therefore, we focus on the analysis of archival data, not preparing new observations. Three appendices include A) a summary of the instrument and an optical schematic, B) examples from the Exposure Time Calculator, and C) a glossary of uncommon acronyms. This report addresses only data from WFC3's IR channel; not the UVIS channel.