ERIS is an image simulator for CHARIS, the high-contrast exoplanet integral field spectrograph (IFS) being built at Princeton University for the Subaru telescope. We present here the software design and implementation of the ERIS code. ERIS simulates CHARIS FITS images and data cubes that are used for developing the data reduction pipeline and verifying the expected CHARIS performance. Components of the software include detailed models of the light source (such as a star or exoplanet), atmosphere, telescope, adaptive optics systems (AO188 and SCExAO), CHARIS IFS and the Hawaii2-RG infrared detector. Code includes novel details such as the phase errors at the lenslet array, optical wavefront error maps and pinholes for reducing crosstalk, just to list a few. The details of the code as well as several simulated images are presented in this paper. This IFS simulator is critical for the CHARIS data analysis pipeline development, minimizing troubleshooting in the lab and on-sky and the characterization of crosstalk.

Date Published: 14 July 2014
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, 91478E (14 July 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2056282

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9147:
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V
Suzanne K. Ramsay; Ian S. McLean; Hideki Takami, Editor(s)