Image Extraction Software for the Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (CHARIS)

Abstract

Coupling direct imaging with spectroscopy is one of the next big steps in the exoplanet field. Direct imaging complements the highly successful indirect detection methods and spectroscopy provides valuable atmospheric and geological information about the exoplanet. The Princeton High Contrast Imaging Lab is currently developing a lenslet-based integral eld spectrograph (IFS), the Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (CHARIS), for the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea. CHARIS is designed to image Jupitersized exoplanets and can gather spectral information in the near-infrared (0.9-2.4 microns) over a 2D plane with only a single exposure. It embeds data from the 3-parameter space the 2D space and the wavelength space onto a 2D CCD detector. The purpose of this thesis is to develop image extraction software that will produce a 3D datacube from the detector image. We have produced a primitive template-based image extraction pipeline for the single wavelength case. We have also developed a simplified simulation of CHARIS with which to test our software. Analyzing the performance of the algorithm using simulation data and lab testbed data results in errors of ~11:7% and ~39:9%, respectively. While far from satisfactory, additional functionality built upon the current framework should improve the performance of the software.