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 Dither and Nod Patterns
  • NIRSpec IFU Dither and Nod Patterns
  • NIRSpec FS Dither and Nod Patterns
• NIRSpec MOS operations
  • Observing Process
  • Catalogs and Images
  • Pre-Imaging using NIRCam
  • Confirmation Images
  • Slit Losses
• NIRSpec IFU operations
• NIRSpec FS operations

• NIRSpec BOTS operations

• NIRSpec Auto-Cals