Description and performances
The CoRoT satellite in flight: description and performances
Auvergne M., Boisnard L., Lam-Trong T., Bodin P., Appourchaux T., Briet R., Buey J-T., Chaintreuil S., Epstein G., Hustaix H., Jouret M.2, Kerjean L.2, Levacher P.3, Magnan A.3, Perez R.2, Plasson P.1, Plesseria J.11, Peter G.4, Steller M.10, Tello M., Tiphène D., Baglin A., Agogué P., Baudin F., Barbet D., Beaufort T., Bellenger R., Berlin R., Bernardi P., Blouin D., Bonneau F., Butler B., Cautain R., Chiavassa F., Costes V., Cuvilo J., Cunha-Parro V. De Oliveira Fialho F., Decaudin M., Defise J-M., Djalal S., Docclo A., Dupuis O., Exil G., Fauré C., Gaboriaud A., Gamet P., Gavalda P., Grolleau E., Gueguen L., Guivarc´h V., Hasiba J., Huntzinger G., Imbert C., Jeanville G., Johlander B., Jorda L., Journoud P., Karioty F., Lapeyrere V., Larqué T., Laudet P., Le Merrer J., Leruyet B., Llebaria A., Martin L., Mazy E., Mesnager J-M., Michel J-P., Moalic J-P., Monjoin W., Naudet D., Neukirchner S., Ollivier M., Ottacher H., Parisot J., Perruchot S., Piacentino A., Pinheiro da Silva L., Platzer J., Pontet B., Pradines A., Quentin C., Rohbeck U., Rolland G., Rollenhagen F., Romagnan R., Russ N., Samadi R., Schmidt R., Schwartz N., Sebbag I., Smit H., Sunter W., Toulouse P., Ulmer B., Vandermarcq O., Vergnault E., Wallner R., Waultier G., Zanatta P.
It is shown that the specified performances are easily reached when the environmental conditions are favorable. Most of the perturbations, and consequently data corrections, are related to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) perturbations: high energy particles inside the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), eclipses and temperature variations and line of sight fluctuations due to the attitude control system. The straylight due to the reflected light by the earth, which has controlled the telescope and bae design, appears to be negligeable.
From top to bottom: 1) Spectrum of a constant faint (V = 9:14) star on the AS channel on 15 days (August 2007) long data with eclipses, before jitter correction. 2) Spectrum of the same data after correction. Dashed vertical lines indicates the orbital frequency and its harmonics. 3) Spectrum of the same star on 15 days (July 2007) data without eclipses.
Ref.: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 506, Issue 1, 2009, pp.411-424, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200810860
