Special Issue: The SVOM Mission: Instruments, Operations, and First Results

SVOM/VT: Preliminary Calibration Analysis

Zhu-Heng Yao, Yu-Lei Qiu, Jin-Song Deng, Li-Ping Xin, Chao Wu, Hua-Li Li, Jing Wang, Yi-Nuo Ma, Hong-Bo Cai, Xu-Hui Han, Jian-Yan Wei and Bertrand Cordier

Abstract

We present the in-orbit calibration of the Visible Telescope (VT), one of the key instruments aboard the Space-based multi-band Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) mission for gamma-ray burst (GRB) studies. Using Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) as a reference, the VT achieves an astrometric precision better than 0″.03 for bright stars, degrading to ∼0″.25 for faint targets. Shortly after launch, contamination was detected, reducing system transmission by ∼40%. An initial bake-out successfully restored performance, but gradual recontamination caused transmission to decline by ∼20% over the following 100 days before stabilizing. Despite this effect, routine standard star observations maintain precise zero-point calibration, ensuring photometric stability at the 0.02 mag level. Using synthetic stellar spectra, we derived photometric transformations to the Gaia, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and Johnson–Cousins systems with typical residuals of 0.03 mag. These results demonstrate the VT system’s capability and reliability in calibrating observations of GRBs and other transients.


Keywords

space vehicles: instruments – telescopes – (stars:) gamma-ray burst: general – methods: observational – techniques: image processing – methods: data analysis

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