NIRSpec Operations
The operational aspects of JWST's NIRSpec instrument define how instrument-level capabilities can be applied for science. These features include target acquisition methods, dither/nods for each observing mode, and special considerations for science observations.
The JWST Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) enables 0.6–5.3 μm spectroscopy at resolving powers of ~100, ~1,000, and ~2,700 in multi-object spectroscopy (MOS), integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy, fixed slit (FS) spectroscopy, and bright object time-series (BOTS) spectroscopy modes.
These NIRSpec science modes include the following operational capabilities:
- NIRSpec target acquisition
NIRSpec dithering strategies
Dithering of spectroscopic observations is necessary to improve coverage of the sky, cover gaps between detectors, correct for detector defects and pixel-to-pixel response fluctuations, and to improve the sampling of the point- and line-spread functions of the instrument. MOS, IFU, and FS modes have dithering strategies to accomplish these goals in the articles listed below:- NIRSpec MOS operations
- NIRSpec IFU operations
- NIRSpec FS operations
- NIRSpec Auto-Cals