Removing systematics from the CoRoT light curves

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 506, Number 1, October IV 2009 The CoRoT space mission: early results


Page(s)		431 - 434
Section		Astronomical instrumentation
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200912037
Published online		15 June 2009

A&A 506, 431-434 (2009)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200912037

I. Magnitude-dependent zero point

T. Mazeh^{1, 2}, P. Guterman³, S. Aigrain⁴, S. Zucker⁵, N. Grinberg⁶, A. Alapini⁴, R. Alonso³, M. Auvergne⁷, M. Barbieri³, P. Barge³, P. Bordé⁸, F. Bouchy⁹, H. Deeg¹⁰, R. De la Reza¹¹, M. Deleuil³, R. Dvorak¹², A. Erikson¹³, M. Fridlund¹⁴, P. Gondoin¹⁴, L. Jorda³, H. Lammer¹⁵, A. Léger⁸, A. Llebaria³, P. Magain¹⁶, C. Moutou³, M. Ollivier⁸, M. Pätzold¹⁷, F. Pont⁴, D. Queloz¹⁸, H. Rauer^{13, 19}, D. Rouan⁷, R. Sabo⁶, J. Schneider²⁰, and G. Wuchterl¹⁹

¹ Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard, 8 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
e-mail: mazeh@post.tau.ac.il
² On Sabbatical leave from School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
³ Le Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR 6110 CNRS, Technopôle de Marseille-Étoile, 13388 Marseille Cedex 13, France
⁴ School of Physics, University of Exeter, Physics Building, Stocker Road, Exeter, Ex4 4QL, UK
⁵ Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
⁶ School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
⁷ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon, France
⁸ IAS, Université Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France
⁹ Observatoire de Haute-Provence, 04870 St Michel l'Observatoire, France
¹⁰ IAC, 38205 La Laguna, Spain
¹¹ ON/MCT, 20921-030, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
¹² IfA, University of Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria
¹³ Institute of Planetary Research, DLR, 12489 Berlin, Germany
¹⁴ RSSD, ESA/ESTEC, 2200 Noordwijk, The Netherlands
¹⁵ IWF, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 8042 Graz, Austria
¹⁶ IAG, Université de Liège, Liège 1, Belgium
¹⁷ RIU, Universität zu Köln, 50931 Köln, Germany
¹⁸ Observatoire de Genève, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
¹⁹ LUTH, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon, France
²⁰ ZAA, TU Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Received 10 March 2009 / Accepted 28 May 2009

Abstract
This paper presents an analysis that searched for systematic effects within the CoRoT exoplanet field light curves. The analysis identified a systematic effect that modified the zero point of most CoRoT exposures as a function of stellar magnitude. We could find this effect only after preparing a set of learning light curves that were relatively free of stellar and instrumental noise. Correcting for this effect, rejecting outliers that appear in almost every exposure, and applying SysRem, reduced the stellar RMS by about 20%, without attenuating transit signals.

Key words: methods: data analysis -- techniques: photometric -- planetary systems

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