The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) signal to noise calculator [IMA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.02776


We present here the signal-to-noise (S/N) calculator developed for the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) mission. CUTE is a 6U CubeSat operating in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) observing exoplanetary transits to study their upper atmospheres. CUTE was launched into a low-Earth orbit in September 2021 and it is currently gathering scientific data. As part of the S/N calculator, we also present the error propagation for computing transit depth uncertainties starting from the S/N of the original spectroscopic observations. The CUTE S/N calculator is currently extensively used for target selection and scheduling. The modular construction of the CUTE S/N calculator enables its adaptation and can be used also for other missions and instruments.

Read this paper on arXiv…

A. Sreejith, L. Fossati, P. Cubillos, et. al.
Fri, 7 Apr 23
19/50

Comments: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science