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The answers to fundamental science questions in astrophysics, ranging from the history of the expansion of the universe to the sizes of nearby stars, hinge on our ability to make precise measurements of diverse astronomical objects. As our…
High-fidelity spectroscopy presents challenges for both observations and in designing instruments. High-resolution and high-accuracy spectra are required for verifying hydrodynamic stellar atmospheres and for resolving intergalactic…
While optical and quantum efficiency are on the rise, and spectrographs becoming massively multiplexed, measuring spectral energy distributions of astronomical sources with accuracy remains a challenge. In addition to atmospheric…
We review the systematic uncertainties that have plagued attempts to obtain high precision and high accuracy from ground-based photometric measurements using CCDs. We identify two main challenges in breaking through the 1% precision…
Large sets of objects with spectroscopic redshift measurements will be needed for imaging dark energy experiments to achieve their full potential, serving two goals:_training_, i.e., the use of objects with known redshift to develop and…
Astrometry is one of the oldest branches of astronomy which measures the position, the proper motion and parallax of celestial objects. Following the Hipparcos and Gaia missions that have measured several billions of them using global…
Optimal error estimation is key to achieve accurate photometry and astrometry. Stellar fluxes and positions in high angular resolution images are typically measured with PSF fitting routines, such as StarFinder. However, the formal…
The wavelength calibration of spectrographs is an essential but challenging task in many disciplines. Calibration is traditionally accomplished by imaging the spectrum of a light source containing features that are known to appear at…
Motivated by the recognition that variation in the optical transmission of the atmosphere is probably the main limitation to the precision of ground-based CCD measurements of celestial fluxes, we review the physical processes that attenuate…
Breakthroughs in physics and astrophysics are often driven by technological advances, with the recent detection of gravitational waves being one such example. This white paper focuses upon how improved astrometric and spectroscopic…
Continuing professional development for teachers in the physical sciences is crucial to maintaining high-quality instruction, especially when addressing modern physics. Nevertheless, the teaching of these topics often relies on theoretical…
By measuring the fundamental constants in astrophysical objects one can test basic physical principles as space-time invariance of physical laws along with probing the applicability limits of the standard model of particle physics. The…
Near-future astronomical survey experiments, such as LSST, possess system requirements of unprecedented fidelity that span photometry, astrometry and shape transfer. Some of these requirements flow directly to the array of science imaging…
Improvements in the precision of the astrophysical flux scale are needed to answer fundamental scientific questions ranging from cosmology to stellar physics. The unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating was…
High precision astrometry provides the foundation to resolve many fundamental problems in astrophysics. The application of astrometric studies spans a wide range of fields, and has undergone enormous growth in recent years. This is as a…
Spectroscopy is one of the most important tools that an astronomer has for studying the universe. This chapter begins by discussing the basics, including the different types of optical spectrographs, with extension to the ultraviolet and…
The quality of astronomical spectra is now so high that the accuracy of the laboratory data is getting more and more important for the analysis and interpretation. Both in astrophysics and cosmology the needs for accurate laboratory…
Transmission spectroscopy is currently the technique best suited to study a wide range of planetary atmospheres, leveraging the filtering of a star's light by a planet's atmosphere rather than its own emission. However, as both a planet and…
Nowadays, tens of satellites carry hyperspectral spectrometers. Such instruments allow decomposing the light that exits the atmosphere from its top into hundreds to thousands of contiguous spectral channels. By analysis of the light…
A major goal of modern astrophysics is to understand the processes by which the universe evolved from its initial simplicity, as seen in measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background, to the universe we see today, with complexity on all…