NSFCAM Image S

ale and Distortion Chara teristi s

based on material extra ted from

Coordinated 1996 HST and IRTF Imaging of Neptune and Triton. I. Observations,

Navigation, and De onvolution Te hniques. by L.A. Sromovsky, P.M. Fry, K.H. Baines,

S.S. Limaye, G.S. Orton, and T.E. Dowling, submitted to I arus on 14 July 1999.

Abstra t
To obtain sub-pixel a ura y in navigation of IRTF images of Neptune, we needed to
determine the NSFCAM pixel s ale for ea h lter used and as a fun tion of lo ation on the
dete tor array to better than 0.1%. This was a omplished using measurements of Uranian
satellites and stellar angular separations at dierent lo ations on the dete tor array. When
set to the nominal value of 0.148 /pixel we found that the NSFCAM image s ale varied
00

with lter from 0.1470 /pixel to 0.1479 /pixel at the enter of the image and in reased
00 00

near the edges of the image as a result of barrel distortion. These results stri tly apply only
for the opti al onguration employed in our 13-14 August 1996 observing run. They do
not ne essarily apply for ongurations that in lude the UV-visible di hroi or the tip-tilt
se ondary mirror.

1 Pixel S ale and Orientation Angle

We observed the Neptune and Uranian systems on 13 and 14 August 1996 with the NSFCAM
lens turret set to the nominal 0.14800 /pixel mode to insure that both Neptune and Triton ould
be t within the same 256x256 pixel image. In this amera onguration, pixel s ale and image
orientation relative to elestial north were determined from measurements of Uranian satellites
positions (Ariel and Umbriel). The absolute image s ale was determined from observations
on the rst night (13 August) and veried by observations on the se ond night (14 August).
Satellite positions were obtained from NAIF ephemeris le URA031, the most a urate available
for the 22-O t-85 through 5-Jan-2000 time period (Ja obson 1991). The 1- un ertainties in
position relative to the planetary system bary enter for the Uranian satellites is 200 km or about

1
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 2

0.01500 (Ja obson, personal ommuni ation; Ja obson 1991). On 13 August 1996, the Umbriel-
p
Ariel separation was about 2200 , so that ephemeris un ertainty ontributes about 0.07% 2
to the s ale un ertainty. It is not lear to what degree this un ertainty an be redu ed by
averaging, and over what time interval the errors a tually vary. However, given that the pixel
s ale is onsistent within better than 0.1%, it appears that for a series of images taken within
an hour or so, the ephemeris error must be onsidered a bias error, and applied after random
errors are averaged.
A sample image of Uranus is provided in Fig. 1. Three satellites an be seen within the ( Fig. 1

amera frame, Ariel (the brightest), Umbriel, and Miranda (the dimmest). The pre ision with
whi h the satellites an be lo ated is a fun tion of the image brightness, as determined from
Monte Carlo simulations of the tting pro ess. For the spe i onditions of this image we
estimate un ertainties of 0.014 pixels for Ariel, 0.019 pixels for Umbriel, and 0.088 pixels for
Miranda. By far the most a urate image s ale is obtained from the Ariel-Umbriel dieren e
be ause the high brightness of these satellites yields the best positional a ura y. All s ale
determinations were thus obtained from Ariel and Umbriel, using 15 images in 5 dierent
lters. In ea h of these images we rst measured the oordinates of the satellites using two
dimensional gaussian ts, then orre ted the oordinates for distortion, as des ribed in Se tion
2, and determined the distan e between them in orre ted image pixels. We then determined
the Ariel-Umbriel position angle relative to the image y axis, from whi h we omputed the
ounter lo kwise angle from Celestial North to the amera Y axis. The results are shown in
Fig. 2, where we nd a somewhat surprising dependen e of image s ale on imaging lter. Note ( Fig. 2

that the average J-lter (+ blo ker) s ale of 0.14700.0001 is nearly 0.6% smaller than the
average K-lter s ale of 0.14790.0001, whi h is a 9- dieren e. While there is somewhat of
a trend towards in reasing s ale with in reasing wavelength, that trend is interrupted by the
Spen er 1.73-m lter, for whi h we nd a lower value than at surrounding wavelengths.
The average s ales derived from the satellite measurements on 13 August 1996 are shown
in Fig. 3, in omparison with those derived using paired star observations. The latter results (
Fig. 3

were obtained by measuring interstellar angular separations at a variety of wavelengths, then

normalizing to the orresponding stellar distan es measured in K-ltered images. Using a s ale
fa tor determined by 2 minimization, we t this relative fun tion to the absolute s ale values
derived from the Uranian satellites. The result is shown in Fig. 3. The relative results onrm
the smaller s ale values for J, H, and Spen er 1.7 lters, and provide additional information for
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 3

Figure 1: A K-lter Uranian satellite image used to

measure the NSFCAM image s ale and orientation,
taken on 13 August 1996 at 9:07:34 UT with an ex-
posure of 0.5 se onds and 80 oadds. In this image
the south pole of Uranus is 87.98 CCW from the im-
age y (up) axis, whi h is 0.68 CCW from elestial
north.

estimating s ales for CVF wavelengths of 1.59 and 2.1 m, for whi h no satellite observations
are available. We used the s aled relative information to adjust the pixel s ales as follows. For
J, H, Spen er 1.7, and K lters we adopted s ales that were weighted averages of the absolute
and s aled relative values, with the latter's weighting redu ed be ause of the in reased varian e
asso iated with the s ale fa tor un ertainty of 0.0001 ar se ond/pixel. For all the CVF lters
we ould dis ern no lear s ale dependen e on lter, and thus adopted a single s ale value equal
to that of the K lter, whi h is onsistent also with the relatively a urate determination for
the 2.00-m lter. We dis overed a signi ant s ale dieren e for the J lter: with the blo ker
in pla e, the J lter s ale in reases by 0.33%. The observations of the Uranian satellites on 13
August and the star observations on 14 August both used a blo ker, while the 14 August 96
Uranian satellite observations did not use a blo ker with that lter. The adopted values are
summarized in Table I and shown as ir les in Fig. 3. The variability of these results from one ( .
Table I

image to the next is smaller than might be expe ted from the 1- ephemeris un ertainty. In
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 4

fa t, measurements of image s ales on 14 August 96, not used in formulating the adopted values
(ex ept for the J w/o blo ker value), serve to onrm those values with very high a ura y (see
Table I). Note that the K and Spen er 1.7 values are indistinguishable from the adopted s ales.

Table I: Measured and Adopted NSFCAM Image S ales in arse onds/pixel.

From 13 Aug 96 From 14 Aug 96
Filter From Star Pairs1;2 Uranian Satellites3 Uranian Satellites3 Adopted Values.
J + Blo ker 0.147360.00020 0.146980.00010 0.146990.00010
J w/o Blo ker 0.147470.00005 0.147470.00010
H 0.147920.00010 0.147430.00010 0.147310.00002 0.147460.00010
CVF 1.59 0.147530.00024 0.147910.00010
Sp. 1.7 0.148570.00019 0.147110.00010 0.147080.00004 0.147110.00010
CVF 2.00 0.147860.00057 0.147900.00020 0.147900.00010
K 0.147800.00022 0.147920.00010 0.147910.00004 0.147910.00010
CVF 2.07 0.147700.00035 0.147910.00010
CVF 2.10 0.148050.00030 0.147910.00010
NOTES: 1. For s ale fa tor of 0.14780.0001 /pixel.
00

2. Un ertainties listed here are in addition to the above s ale fa tor un ertainty.
3. In ludes distortion orre tions.

These results are onsistent with the Baines et al. (1998) value of 0.14780.0010 ar se -
ond/pixel, though our values are at least ten times more pre ise, and thus are able to learly
resolve the lter dependen ies.
From Ariel and Umbriel we also determined amera orientation, spe ied as the ounter-
lo kwise angle from elestial north to the image y axis. As is apparent from Fig. 2, there is
relatively little variation in orientation angle that an be asso iated with lter hanges. For 13
August 1996 we found an average orientation angle of 0.6860.008 , and for 14 August 1996
we obtained 0.6640.005 using only the more a urate values. The dieren e of 0.0240.009
is larger than suggested by our estimated un ertainties, but is still well within our required
a ura y of 0.04 . We also used the beam swit h dire tion to estimate the image orientation,
and obtained a similar value. For the most part, deviations among various s ale and angle
determinations, as evident in Fig. 2, seem to be onsistent with our estimated un ertainties.
It is important to note that all of the s ale determinations a ount for NSFCAM image
distortions that we determined from observations of star elds, as des ribed in the following
se tion. Without su h orre tions apparent s ale variations of several tenths of a per ent are
possible.
We have ignored possible hanges in s ale asso iated with fo us variations that o ur during
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 5

an observing run. This is justied by observations indi ating no signi ant dependen e of s ale
on fo us position. During the 14 August 96 IRTF observing run we a quired a set of images
ontaining 5 stars in addition to Neptune and Triton. This series in luded J-ltered images
taken during fo us adjustment. We measured distan es between stars in ea h image, and
analyzed how those distan es varied with fo us position. We found that the variations with
respe t to fo us were essentially random variations of about the magnitude expe ted from our
un ertainty estimates, and generally was well within 0.1% of the mean. There was no dis ernible
trend indi ating a dependen e on fo us, at least within the range that might be experien ed in
a night of observing.
The ee ts of atmospheri refra tion on apparent zenith, as given for example by Allen
(1964), s aled by a fa tor of 0.6 to a ount for the redu ed atmospheri mass above 14,000
ft, yields a deviation of 60 ar se onds at 2 air masses. The dierential refra tion, whi h
has a dire t ee t on the apparent image s ale in the altitude dire tion, is 0.07% at visible
wavelengths and slightly smaller at near IR wavelengths, and in any ase not very signi ant.
As most quality observations are nearer to 1.4 air masses, where the ee t is at 0.035%, and
ompletely ignorable.

Figure 2: NSFCAM image s ale and orientation derived from Uranus satellite observa-
tions. The upper labels indi ate image le number and satellite ombination (U, A, and
M denote Umbriel, Ariel, and Miranda) The lower labels identify lters. For these data
the J lter was used with a blo ker (see next gure for s ale results when a blo ker is
not used. The Baines et al. (1998) value was derived from 1995 images.
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 6

Figure 3: IRTF NSFCAM image s ale vs. lter, from Ura-

nian satellite observations (diamonds), from s aled star pair
relative observations (squares), and the adopted values from
Table I (open ir les onne ted by dashed line). The various
symbols are horizontally oset for larity.

2 Corre tion of NSFCAM image distortions

Be ause our method of navigating IRTF images of Neptune requires pre ise osets from Triton,
we found it ne essary to determine and orre t for NSFCAM image distortions. We were able
to address this issue using the 14 August 96 data set ontaining multiple star images. In this
ase we analysed how interstellar distan es diered in two dierent beam positions separated by
about 1000 . Be ause a pointing hange of 1000 moves the stars to substantially dierent lo ations
on the array, image distortions are revealed by hanges in interstellar distan es with pointing
dire tion. Our data set is su ient to onstrain only a relatively simple orre tion fun tion.
We assumed that orre ted oordinates (x0 ; y0 ) ould be written as

(x0 ; y0 ) = (x ; y ) + (x
o o x ;y
o y )(1 + k(r=r )2 )
o r (1)

where (x; y) are the raw oordinates, (x ; y ) is the enter of distortion (near the enter of the
o o

image), r2 = (x x )2 +(y y )2 , and r =127 pixels. This provides a radially dire ted orre tion
o o r
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 7

that in reases quadrati ally with distan e from the enter, with proportionality onstant k.
This is onsistent with the lassi al form of distortion derived in third-order aberration theory
(Born and Wolf 1980), for whi h the aberration itself (dieren e between ideal and a tual image
oordinates) is proportional to the ube of the o-axis distan e. To determine the oe ient
k and the ee tive entral oordinates (x ; y ), we sele ted those values whi h minimize 2 =
o o

X(dx (i; k)
2 + 2 , where
x y
N

2 =x a dx (i; k))2 =(2 + 2 )

b x;a x;b
(2)
i =1

X
 = (dy (i; k)
2
y
N

a dy (i; k))2 =(2 + 2 )

b y;a y;b
(3)
i =1
in whi h dx (i; k) and dx (i; k) are x- omponents of the ve tor onne ting the ith star pair in
a b

beam positions a and b respe tively, and  x;a and  x;b are the un ertainties in those ompo-
nents. Analogous denitions apply to the y-equation. Whether the solution obtained yields a
signi ant and useful orre tion an be assessed by the value of 2 at the minimum. A value
lose to N indi ates that we have removed all the varian e beyond what was expe ted just
from the un ertainty in tting gaussians to the star images. A larger value indi ates that the
orre tion fun tion is not doing a good job of hara terizing the variations that are present.
The results of our t to 17 quartets of measurements on 17 star pairs in two dierent beam
positions are shown in Fig. 4. We found best t parameter values of k = 0:005500 0008
0006 , x = :
: o (
Fig. 4

137.533 39 , and y = 138.242 31 . The orre ted oordinates yield a fa tor of six redu tion in 2
:
: o
:
:

and nearly fa tor of three redu tion in the standard deviation of dieren es from the desired
zero value. The 2 minimum value is about 3-5 times N , indi ating that the total noise in the
measurements is a fa tor 1.7-2.2 greater than indi ated by our un ertainty estimates. Be ause
our estimates are well founded and veried by observational he ks, this seems to imply that
the distortion orre tions themselves have a variability that is not fully hara terized by the
fun tional form we have hosen to t. The residual variation, though rather small, is of the
order of 0.1 pixels, and represents one of the larger ontributors to the error budget in our oset
navigation method. The sign of k being positive means that the NSFCAM image has a barrel
distortion, so that features at the edge of the frame appear too lose to the enter of the frame.
In our appli ationi this orre tion is used as follows. We rst determine Triton's oordinates
within an image ontaining Neptune and Triton. Next we orre t the Triton oordinates to
values that would apply to an undistorted image. Using the image orientation and ephemeris
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 8

values for the angular osets between Triton and Neptune at the entral time of the image,
we divide by the entral image s ale to determine the orre ted pixel oset, and add that to
the Triton oordinates to obtain the orre ted position of Neptune's enter in an undistorted
image. These oordinates are then distorted by the inverse of the orre tion fun tion, to dene
the position of Neptune's enter in the distorted image.
The lo al image s ale in the distorted NSFCAM image varies with position. It is smallest
near the enter, and in reases towards the edge, i.e. there are more ar se onds per pixel at the
edges of the image. Unfortunately the lo al s ale is not isotropi . The radial s ale is given by
S (1 + 3k(r=r )2 ) and the tangential s ale by S (1 + k(r=r )2 ), where S is the lter-dependent
o o o

adopted entral s ale at (x ; y ), in ar se onds/pixel as given in Table I. To preserve proper

o o

angular area, we use the geometri mean s ale whi h is approximated by

S (r) = S (1 + 2k(r=r )2 )
o (4)

At r = 127 pixels, this evaluates to S (r)=S = 1:01, while at a more typi al distan e of 60 pixels,
o

the ee t is less than 0.25%. In any ase, the lo al s ale is taken into a ount in transforming
image oordinates to planetary oordinates.

Referen es

A ton, C.H. 1996. An illary Data Servi es of NASA's Navigation and An illary Information
Fa ility. Planetary and Spa e S ien e Vol. 44 , No. 1, 65-70.

Allen, C.W. 1964. Astrophysi al Quantities. 2nd Edition, Oxford Univ. Press In ., New York

Baines, K.H., P.A. Yanamandra-Fisher, L.A. Lebofsky, T.W. Momary, W. Golish, C. Kaminski,
and W.J. Wild 1998. Near-Infrared Absolute Photometri Imaging of the Uranian System.
I arus 132 , 266-284.

Born, M. and E. Wolf 1980. Prin iples of Opti s . 6th edition, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

Giorgini, J.D., D.K. Yeomans, A.B. Chamberlin, P.W. Chodas, R.A. Ja obson, M.S. Keesey,
J.H. Lieske, S.J. Ostro, E.M. Standish, and R.N. Wimberly 1998. Horizons, JPL's On-

Line Solar System Data and Ephemeris Computation Servi e , a user's guide available from
ftp://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/ssd/Horizons do .ps.
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 9

Figure 4: Distortion orre tion of IRTF NSFCAM images,

as derived for use with the 0.1500 lens in 1996 observation-
s. Star pair a-b dierential x and y distan e measurements
divided by expe ted dieren e a ura ies are shown in lower
two panels, where the dashed line shows these ratios when
no distortion orre tion is applied, and the solid urve shows
what is obtained with the distortion orre tion that mini-
mizes 2 + 2 . The top panel shows the magnitude of the
x y

derived distortion orre tion as a fun tion of distan e from

the enter of distortion, given by (x ,y ).
o o
Sromovsky et al., NSFCAM Image Geometry 10

Ja obson, R.A., J.E. Reidl, and A.H. Taylor 1991. The orbits of Triton and Nereid from
spa e raft and Earthbased observations, Astron. , 565 -575.
and Astrophys. 247

Sromovsky, L.A., P.M. Fry, K. H. Baines, S.S. Limaye, G.S. Orton, and T. E. Dowling 1998.
Coordinated 1996 HST and IRTF Imaging of Neptune and Triton. I. Observations, Navigation,
and De onvolution Te hniques. 1999. Submitted to I arus, 14 July 1999.