Photometry and performance of SPECULOOS-South
Article
Article Title | Photometry and performance of SPECULOOS-South |
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ERA Journal ID | 1074 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Murray, C. A. (Author), Delrez, L. (Author), Pedersen, P. P. (Author), Queloz, D. (Author), Gillon, M. (Author), Burdanov, A. (Author), Ducrot, E. (Author), Garcia, L. J. (Author), Lienhard, F. (Author), Demory, B. O. (Author), Jehin, E. (Author), McCormac, J. (Author), Sebastian, D. (Author), Sohy, S. (Author), Thompson, S. J. (Author), Triaud, A. H. M. J. (Author), Van Grootel, V. V. (Author), Gunther, M. N. (Author) and Huang, C. X. (Author) |
Journal Title | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Journal Citation | 495 (2), pp. 2446-2457 |
Number of Pages | 12 |
Year | 2020 |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Place of Publication | United States |
ISSN | 0035-8711 |
1365-2966 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1283 |
Web Address (URL) | https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/495/2/2446/5834559 |
Abstract | SPECULOOS-South, an observatory composed of four independent 1-m robotic telescopes, located at ESO Paranal, Chile, started scientific operation in 2019 January. This Southern hemisphere facility operates as part of the Search for Habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars (SPECULOOS), an international network of 1-m-class telescopes surveying for transiting terrestrial planets around the nearest and brightest ultracool dwarfs (UCDs). To automatically and efficiently process the observations of SPECULOOS-South, and to deal with the specialized photometric requirements of UCD targets, we present our automatic pipeline. This pipeline includes an algorithm for automated differential photometry and an extensive correction technique for the effects of telluric water vapour, using ground measurements of the precipitable water vapour. Observing very red targets in the near-infrared can result in photometric systematics in the differential light curves, related to the temporally-varying, wavelength-dependent opacity of the Earth's atmosphere. These systematics are sufficient to affect the daily quality of the light curves, the longer time-scale variability study of our targets and even mimic transit-like signals. Here we present the implementation and impact of our water vapour correction method. Using the 179 nights and 98 targets observed in the I + z' filter by SPECULOOS-South since 2019 January, we show the impressive photometric performance of the facility (with a median precision of ∼1.5 mmag for 30-min binning of the raw, non-detrended light curves) and assess its detection potential. We compare simultaneous observations with SPECULOOS-South and TESS, to show that we readily achieve high-precision, space-level photometry for bright, UCDs, highlighting SPECULOOS-South as the first facility of its kind. |
Keywords | atmospheric effects; techniques: photometric; planets and satellites:; detection; Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 510109. Stellar astronomy and planetary systems |
Public Notes | This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2020 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
Byline Affiliations | University of Cambridge, United Kingdom |
Cavendish Laboratory, United Kingdom | |
University of Liege, Belgium | |
University of Bern, Switzerland | |
University of Warwick, United Kingdom | |
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom | |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q7247/photometry-and-performance-of-speculoos-south
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