Performances of the SIMBIO-SYS High Resolution Imaging Channel on Board BepiColombo/ESA Spacecraft Channel Performance Parameters as Derived by on Ground Calibration Measurements

Abstract

HRIC (High Resolution Imaging Channel) is the SIMBIO-SYS high-resolution channel on-board the BepiColombo/ESA spacecraft. Calibration activities were performed at Leonardo SpA (formerly Selex ES) (Campi Bisenzio Firenze) premises in spring-summer 2014. The work allowed: 1) to check for the channel performances (i.e. image quality, radiometric and geometrical performances); 2) to define the calibration pipeline required to process the raw images that will be acquired during the mission operative phase. The main obtained results include the definition of: 1) channel electrical parameters (i.e. dark current, readout and fixed pattern noise); 2) radiometric performances (i.e. response vs. exposure time and flux spectral response). All the parameters have been measured at pixel level due to the relatively high variability of CMOS detectors with respect to CCDs. The final target is to obtain the calibration pipeline parameters correcting pixel-by-pixel the HRIC data. We here describe the performed measurement and the adopted analysis approach to derive the calibration parameters.