Verifying the STIS Time Dependent Sensitivity Trends with the Primary CALSPEC Standards

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Stapleton, Daniel, Hernandez, Svea
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Stapleton, Daniel
Hernandez, Svea
author_facet Stapleton, Daniel
Hernandez, Svea
contents The STIS team monitors the time dependent sensitivity (TDS) of each grating with one from a set of three secondary CALSPEC standard stars: GRW+70D5824, AGK+81D266, and BD+28D4211. Here, we use the three primary CALSPEC White Dwarf standard stars, dubbed the standard star "triad" (GD71, GD153, G191B2B), as an independent set of standards to verify the accuracy of STIS TDS corrections derived from the TDS monitoring stars, increasing the sample for each STIS L-mode from one up to three or four standard stars. We focus on triad star observations using the STIS L-mode gratings (e.g., G140L, G230L, etc.) with the same configuration as our standard TDS monitoring programs, and compare the triad observations to the TDS pipeline trends. Our analysis indicates the relative net count rates inferred from the triad standards agree with the TDS trends derived from the TDS monitoring stars with average residuals $<$ 2$\%$ across the full wavelength range of STIS, suggesting our current TDS L-mode trends are reliable and robust. We note that the dispersion in the residuals does vary with wavelength, with the NUV showing the lowest spread ($\pm$ 0.32$\%$ at 2400-2500 Angstroms) and the NIR the largest ($\pm$ 1.32$\%$ at 9500-9900 Angstroms); however, this scatter is also seen in our measurements of the TDS monitoring stars and is more indicative of other instrumental effects. Our findings rule out long term deviations, such as variability in our TDS monitoring stars, within measurement uncertainties.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_21966
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Verifying the STIS Time Dependent Sensitivity Trends with the Primary CALSPEC Standards
Stapleton, Daniel
Hernandez, Svea
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The STIS team monitors the time dependent sensitivity (TDS) of each grating with one from a set of three secondary CALSPEC standard stars: GRW+70D5824, AGK+81D266, and BD+28D4211. Here, we use the three primary CALSPEC White Dwarf standard stars, dubbed the standard star "triad" (GD71, GD153, G191B2B), as an independent set of standards to verify the accuracy of STIS TDS corrections derived from the TDS monitoring stars, increasing the sample for each STIS L-mode from one up to three or four standard stars. We focus on triad star observations using the STIS L-mode gratings (e.g., G140L, G230L, etc.) with the same configuration as our standard TDS monitoring programs, and compare the triad observations to the TDS pipeline trends. Our analysis indicates the relative net count rates inferred from the triad standards agree with the TDS trends derived from the TDS monitoring stars with average residuals $<$ 2$\%$ across the full wavelength range of STIS, suggesting our current TDS L-mode trends are reliable and robust. We note that the dispersion in the residuals does vary with wavelength, with the NUV showing the lowest spread ($\pm$ 0.32$\%$ at 2400-2500 Angstroms) and the NIR the largest ($\pm$ 1.32$\%$ at 9500-9900 Angstroms); however, this scatter is also seen in our measurements of the TDS monitoring stars and is more indicative of other instrumental effects. Our findings rule out long term deviations, such as variability in our TDS monitoring stars, within measurement uncertainties.
title Verifying the STIS Time Dependent Sensitivity Trends with the Primary CALSPEC Standards
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.21966