NICMOS Status 2014

Rodger Thompson - Steward Observatory, University of Arizona

Calibration WorkshopAugust 11, 2014STScI

Basic StatusBoth the Near Infrared Camera and

Multi-Object Spectrometer, NICMOS, and the NICMOS Cooling System, NCS, are in hold mode.NICMOS is warm and must be cooled to be operational.The NCS must be purged to remove any water and refilled with neon gas from the on-board auxiliary tank.All procedures are in place for NCS restart and NICMOS recovery.

The NICMOS Cooling System

NCS Images

Calibration Strategy

NICMOS would only be recovered to utilize capabilities not duplicated or exceeded by other instruments.Calibration would most likely only be carried out for those capabilities when they are required.There are no current plans to recover NICMOS

Unique Imaging Capabilities

High resolution imaging with Camera 1, 0.043 arc sec. pixels Camera 2, 0.075 arc sec. pixels

Imaging longer than 1.7 micronsImaging in unique broad and medium band filters

NICMOS View of the Pillars of “Creation”

Unique Line Imaging filtersAtomic Hydrogen Pa a – 1.875 mm Br g – 2.165 mm

Molecular Hydrogen S1 – 2.121 mm

Helium 1.083 mm

Metals [S III] – 0.953 mm [Si VI] – 1.062 mm

The Egg Nebula

F110W BLUEF160W GREENH2 RED

G. Schneider

Planetary and Stellar Atmosphere Molecular Band Filters

F180M HCO2 and C2

F204M MethaneF237M CO

Imaging in Polarized Light

Camera 1 POL0S POL120S POL240S

Camera 2 POL0L POL120L POL240L

Polarization Image

IRAS04302+2247 Prop. 10178 Dean Hines

F160W NIC2 POL

Infrared Coronagraphic Imaging

Coronographic hole in camera 2

NGC 2264 G. Schneider

WHAT NEXT

There are no current plans to restore NICMOS to operational status.All systems appear to be nominal.At the time of last operation there appeared to be no sign of detector degradation.The NCS can be restarted and NICMOS returned to operation via commands from the ground.

Using the Archive

“The NICMOS instrument, which began taking data in 1997, was so cutting-edge that ground-based technology is only now beginning to match its power. Because Hubble has been in operation for 24 years, it provides a long baseline of high-quality archival observations. Now, with such new technologies in image processing, we can go back to the archive and conduct research more precisely than previously possible with NICMOS data,"

STScI Press Release April 24, 2014

New Stellar Disks from Old NICMOS Data

Known Calibration Issues

Two Epochs of Calibration Solid Nitrogen Cooled 1997-2001 NCS Cooled 2002 – Now

Persistence Faint residual images after reset

Quad-bias DC offsets between detector

quadrants

Known Calibration Issues cont.

History dependent “dark current” Subsequent reads have different

“dark current” subtractions Experience with reference pixels in

more recent detectors show that this is not true dark current.

Non-Linearity Mitigated by up the ramp sampling.

Bottom Line

Know what has been done to your NICMOS data.For Deep Field images you may wish to start with the raw data and process it yourself.Know what is in the headers. Most of it is there for a reason.

Fair Warning

Beware of Fred! There is no ring around Mars!