Final Calibration and Processing of HST/WFPC2 Data

In preparation for the decommissioning of WFPC2 during HST Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), we have undertaken a series of calibration and software enhancements to the CALWP2 calibration pipeline. These enhancements include improved photometric calibrations, geometric-distortion coefficients, and flat fields; an improved UV-throughput correction; removal of the streaks and correction of the photometric errors caused by the WF4 anomaly; and the production of a "PyDrizzled" image for each WFPC2 data set. Once complete, these enhancements will be incorporated into CALWP2 and the new pipeline used to re-calibrate all WFPC2 data in the HST archive. This re-calibration will enable the retrieval of uniformly-calibrated WFPC2 data without the need to re-create and re-calibrate the data files via the archive's OTFR (On-The-Fly-Recalibration) procedure, dramatically improving delivery times and rendering WFPC2 data readily usable by the Virtual Observatory and related projects. We expect reprocessing to begin in early 2008 and be completed shortly after SM4.

Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.