arXiv subjects

Mark Neeser

Publications and source records attributed to Mark Neeser.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Persistence characteristics of H4RG-15 detectors for ESO instruments

As a part of the ESO Instrumentation Program, we already ordered 23 H4RG-15 (2.5 um cut-off) detectors for the instruments MOONS, MICADO, and HARMONI, with more of these detectors planned for future instruments on the ELT as well as possibly other ESO telescopes. As part of our comprehensive detector testing program, we characterize detector persistence at different temperatures between 40 and 85 K, allowing the best-informed choice of operating temperature for the science focal planes. We report the characteristics of persistence as a function of temperature for the 5 MOONS detectors and 10 MICADO detectors that have already been tested between 2019 and 2025. These detectors show a rich variety of persistence behaviour that can be fit with a single persistence model with varying parameters. We produce persistence trap maps and a model for persistence decay for each device, allowing automatic pipeline correction of persistence and also simulation of persistence behaviour of individual detectors using the Pyxel detector simulator. Each detector was unique and had different optimal operation temperatures for reduced persistence. We therefore recommend implementing a flexible thermal interface in the instrument design phase allowing for the detector operating temperature to be optimized after the science detectors have been fully characterized.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

The ESO's Extremely Large Telescope Working Groups

Since 2005 ESO has been working with its community and industry to develop an extremely large optical/infrared telescope. ESO's Extremely Large Telescope, or ELT for short, is a revolutionary ground-based telescope that will have a 39-metre main mirror and will be the largest visible and infrared light telescope in the world. To address specific topics that are needed for the science operations and calibrations of the telescope, thirteen specific working groups were created to coordinate the effort between ESO, the instrument consortia, and the wider community. We describe here the goals of these working groups as well as their achievements so far.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2018

ERIS: revitalising an adaptive optics instrument for the VLT

ERIS is an instrument that will both extend and enhance the fundamental diffraction limited imaging and spectroscopy capability for the VLT. It will replace two instruments that are now being maintained beyond their operational lifetimes, combine their functionality on a single focus, provide a new wavefront sensing module that makes use of the facility Adaptive Optics System, and considerably improve their performance. The instrument will be competitive with respect to JWST in several regimes, and has outstanding potential for studies of the Galactic Center, exoplanets, and high redshift galaxies. ERIS had its final design review in 2017, and is expected to be on sky in 2020. This contribution describes the instrument concept, outlines its expected performance, and highlights where it will most excel.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2007

Astro-WISE: Chaining to the Universe

The recent explosion of recorded digital data and its processed derivatives threatens to overwhelm researchers when analysing their experimental data or when looking up data items in archives and file systems. While current hardware developments allow to acquire, process and store 100s of terabytes of data at the cost of a modern sports car, the software systems to handle these data are lagging behind. This general problem is recognized and addressed by various scientific communities, e.g., DATAGRID/EGEE federates compute and storage power over the high-energy physical community, while the astronomical community is building an Internet geared Virtual Observatory, connecting archival data. These large projects either focus on a specific distribution aspect or aim to connect many sub-communities and have a relatively long trajectory for setting standards and a common layer. Here, we report "first light" of a very different solution to the problem initiated by a smaller astronomical IT community. It provides the abstract "scientific information layer" which integrates distributed scientific analysis with distributed processing and federated archiving and publishing. By designing new abstractions and mixing in old ones, a Science Information System with fully scalable cornerstones has been achieved, transforming data systems into knowledge systems. This break-through is facilitated by the full end-to-end linking of all dependent data items, which allows full backward chaining from the observer/researcher to the experiment. Key is the notion that information is intrinsic in nature and thus is the data acquired by a scientific experiment. The new abstraction is that software systems guide the user to that intrinsic information by forcing full backward and forward chaining in the data modelling.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

The SINFONI pipeline

The SINFONI data reduction pipeline, as part of the ESO-VLT Data Flow System, provides recipes for Paranal Science Operations, and for Data Flow Operations at Garching headquarters. At Paranal, it is used for the quick-look data evaluation. For Data Flow Operations, it fulfills several functions: creating master calibrations; monitoring instrument health and data quality; and reducing science data for delivery to service mode users. The pipeline is available to the science community for reprocessing data with personalised reduction strategies and parameters. The pipeline recipes can be executed either with EsoRex at the command line level or through the Gasgano graphical user interface. The recipes are implemented with the ESO Common Pipeline Library (CPL). SINFONI is the Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observations in the Near Infrared (1.1-2.45 um) at the ESO-VLT. SINFONI was developed and build by ESO and MPE in collaboration with NOVA. It consists of the SPIFFI integral field spectrograph and an adaptive optics module which allows diffraction limited and seeing limited observations. The image slicer of SPIFFI chops the SINFONI field of view on the sky in 32 slices which are re-arranged to a pseudo slit. The latter is dispersed by one of the four possible gratings (J, H, K, H+K). The detector thus sees a spatial dimension (along the pseudo-slit) and a spectral dimension. We describe in this paper the main data reduction procedures of the SINFONI pipeline, which is based on SPRED - the SPIFFI data reduction software developed by MPE, and the most recent developments after more than a year of SINFONI operations.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Search for High Proper Motion White Dwarfs

Recent results of microlensing surveys, show that 10-20% of the dark halo mass of the Milky Way consists of compact objects. The masses of these compact objects range from 0.1 to 1 solar mass. New theoretical cooling models for white dwarfs, and the detection of faint blue high proper motion objects, imply that ancient white dwarfs might make up part of this population. In this pilot project, using data from the C and D patches of the ESO Imaging Survey and data obtained at CTIO, we attempted to find such halo white dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. With a time baseline of approximately one year between data sets and a limiting I-band magnitude of 23, we can find these high proper motion objects up to distances of 85 parsecs. In the 2.5 square degrees studied so far we have found three high proper motion candidates.

astro-ph↗