The scientific objectives of a space mission result into instrumental developments and specific satellite operations to observe astronomical objects of interest. The payload in its space environment is however subject to important thermal variations that affect observations. This is well observed when images of the Sun are recorded with the constraint of keeping the solar rotational axis in a constant direction relatively to the camera reference frame. Consequences are clearly observed on image positions that follow the thermal variations induced by the satellite orbit. This is, in particular, the case for the space mission PICARD. This phenomenon is similar to defocus and motions of images recorded with ground-based telescopes. We first present some simulations showing these effects. We then compare our results with real data obtained from the space mission PICARD.

Date Published: 29 July 2016
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9904, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 99044G (29 July 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2232028

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9904:
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave
Howard A. MacEwen; Giovanni G. Fazio; Makenzie Lystrup; Natalie Batalha; Nicholas Siegler; Edward C. Tong, Editor(s)