Preliminary Characterization of the Post- Launch Line Spread Function of COS

Abstract

We present a preliminary analysis of the line spread function (LSF) of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) using FUV and NUV stellar spectra acquired during the SM4 Servicing Mission Observatory Verification (SMOV). Our results indicate that the on-orbit shape of the COS LSF with the HST optical telescope assembly (OTA) deviates from the profile measured in ground testing due to the appearance of broad non-Gaussian wings. The wings are caused by mid-frequency wave-front errors (MFWFEs) that are produced by the zonal (polishing) errors on the HST primary and secondary mirrors; these errors could not be simulated during ground testing. The MFWFE effects are particularly noticeable in the FUV. While the pre-launch FUV LSF is well described by a Gaussian, the on-orbit FUV LSF has up to 40% of its total power distributed in non-Gaussian wings. The power in these wings is largest at the shortest wavelengths covered by the COS medium-resolution gratings (~ 1150 A). The effect diminishes with increasing wavelength but has a nonnegligible effect on encircled energies even at the longest wavelengths. The effects of the MFWFEs are also present in the COS NUV LSF, particularly for the shorter wavelength gratings (G185M and G225M), although at a lower level than in the FUV. Optical models incorporating the MFWFE effects into the LSF have been calculated for the whole spectral range covered by the FUV and NUV medium-resolution gratings. We show that for the