HST Data Handbook for WFPC2

WFPC2 Introduction

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How to Use this Handbook

This handbook is designed to help you manipulate, process and analyze data from the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) instrument on-board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The book is presented as an independent and self-contained document, extensively based on the contents of an older edition (version 3.0) of the HST Data Handbook. The HST Data Handbook has now been subdivided into separate volumes for each instrument. Users who require more general information about details of acquiring HST data from archive, their file formats, and general purpose software for displaying and processing these data, are referred to a companion volume, the Introduction to Reducing the HST Data.

The current edition of the WFPC2 Data Handbook is being written in late 2001, as we approach Servicing Mission 3b (SM3b). The behavior of this instrument is not likely to change after the servicing mission. Therefore, the material presented in this handbook is expected to remain up-to-date during the next cycles. However, as each servicing mission is followed by a checkout period, to verify that no changes in the camera calibrations have occurred, any such changes are reported in Instrument Science Reports (e.g., see ISRs on WFPC2 observatory verifications after SM3a and SM2 (ISR 00-02 and 97-09)).

The present revision incorporates our detailed knowledge of the behavior and characteristics of the WFPC2 and the data obtained by this instrument. The main changes to the current WFPC2 data handbook over its previous version (revised in 1997) include: discussion of correction flatfields, which can be useful for highly-exposed science images in PC and lower exposure levels in UV filters on WF chips; advice on generating custom dark reference files, which could improve hot pixel corrections; summary of the WFPC2 pipeline processing history (OPUS, OTFC, OTFR) and the introduction of On The Fly Reprocessing (OTFR); and detailed information for converting the photometry from the WFPC2 filters to other systems widely used in literature.

While the present version of the Data Handbook contains the latest information for accurate reduction and analysis of the WFPC2 data, readers are advised to consult the Space Telescope Science Institute web site (http://hst.stsci.edu/hst/HST_overview/instruments) for the most recent up-dates regarding WFPC2 performance.

Bahram Mobasher, Chief Editor, HST Data Handbook

Sylvia Baggett and Matthew McMaster,

Editors, WFPC2 Data Handbook