Illustration of the Earth stray-light variation with respect to the orbital period of the satellite (2012 dataset). (a) Relative flux of the one-day sequences phase folded at the MOST satellite period and binned over 5-min intervals. The different series have been shifted in flux for visibility. The shape of the stray-light evolves from day-to-day and a time delay is observed. (b) Example of patterns with a duration of one satellite period belonging to the same one-day time series. The y-axis is in part-per-thousand. The solid lines show an unshifted (black) and the reference (red) pattern. The dashed line shows the black pattern corrected by the estimated time delay (− 86s), which was found using the cross-correlation function shown in (c).