The Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) for NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will constitute a dramatic step forward for high-contrast imaging, integral field spectroscopy, and polarimetry of exoplanets and circumstellar disks, aiming to improve upon the sensitivity of current ground-based direct imaging facilities by 2-3 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, CGI will serve as a pathfinder for future exo-Earth imaging and characterization missions by demonstrating wavefront control, coronagraphy, and spectral retrieval in a new contrast regime, and by validating instrument and telescope models at unprecedented levels of precision. To achieve this jump in performance, it is critical to draw on the experience of ground-based high-contrast facilities. We discuss several areas of relevant commonalities, including: wavefront control, post-processing of integral field unit data, and calibration and observing strategies.
@article{arxiv.1901.04049,
title = {Lessons for WFIRST CGI from ground-based high-contrast systems},
author = {Vanessa P. Bailey and Michael Bottom and Eric Cady and Faustine Cantalloube and Jozua de Boer and Tyler Groff and John Krist and Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer and Arthur Vigan and Jeffrey Chilcote and Elodie Choquet and Robert J. De Rosa and Julien H Girard and Olivier Guyon and Brian Kern and Anne-Marie Lagrange and Bruce Macintosh and Jared R. Males and Christian Marois and Tiffany Meshkat and Julien Milli and Mamadou N'Diaye and Henry Ngo and Eric L. Nielsen and Jason Rhodes and Garreth Ruane and Rob G. van Holstein and Jason J. Wang and Wenhao Jerry Xuan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.04049},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Published in Proceedings of the SPIE; Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave. 13 pages, 6 figures