Detection of a peculiar noise type in the TESS "fast" light curves
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
2025-02-17 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Abstract
We present the detection of a peculiar high-frequency noise component in the 20 second cadence SAP (Simple Aperture Photometry) light curve of TESS (Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite). This effect (labeled as blue noise) may be attributed to the pointing instability (also known as satellite jiiter) of the satellite. We present a common technique used in the mitigation of the jitter, by decorrelating against the subpixel position of the photo-center of the point spread function of the star. We also show that a simple linear or polynomial technique may not yield satisfactory corrections, as the behavior or attitude of the noise properties may change considerably throughout the light curve.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2502.10326,
title = {Detection of a peculiar noise type in the TESS "fast" light curves},
author = {Sz. Kálmán and Sz. Csizmadia and A. Pál and Gy. M. Szabó},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.10326},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Published as a Research Note of the AAS