Analyzing Eight Years of Transiting Exoplanet Observations Using WFC3's Spatial Scan Monitor (1910.02073v1)

Abstract: HST/WFC3's spatial scan monitor automatically reduces and analyzes time-series data taken in spatial scan mode with the IR grisms. Here we describe the spatial scan monitor pipeline and present results derived from eight years of transiting exoplanet data. Our goal is to monitor the quality of the data and make recommendations to users that will enhance future observations. We find that a typical observation achieves a white light curve precision that is $1.07\times$ the photon-limit (which is slightly better than expectations) and that the pointing drift is relatively stable during times of normal telescope operations. We note that observations cannot achieve the optimal precision when the drift along the dispersion direction ($X$ axis) exceeds 15 mas ($\sim$0.11 pixels). Based on our sample, 77.1% of observations are ''successful'' ($<15$ mas rms drift), 12.0% are ''marginal'' (15 -- 135 mas), and 10.8% of observations have ''failed'' ($>135$ mas or $>1$ pixel), meaning they do not achieve the necessary pointing stability to achieve the optimal spectroscopic precision. In comparing the observed versus calculated maximum pixel fluence, we find that the J band is a better predictor of fluence than the H band. Using this information, we derive an updated, empirical relation for scan rate that also accounts for the J-H color of the host star. We implement this relation and other improvements in version 1.4 of PandExo and version 0.5 of ExoCTK. Finally, we make recommendations on how to plan future observations with increased precision.