Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

DOI 10.1007/s10509-014-1907-x

O R I G I N A L A RT I C L E

The Imaging and Slitless Spectroscopy Instrument for Surveys

(ISSIS): expected radiometric performance, operation modes
and data handling
Ana I. Gmez de Castro G. Beln Perea
Nstor Snchez Javier Lpez Santiago
Jse Chirivella Juan Seijas

Received: 7 February 2014 / Accepted: 21 March 2014 / Published online: 9 April 2014
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract ISSIS is the instrument for imaging and slitless

spectroscopy on-board WSO-UV. In this article, a detailed
comparison between ISSIS expected radiometric performance and other ultraviolet instruments is shown. In addition, we present preliminary information on the performance
verification tests and on the foreseen procedures for in-flight
operation and data handling.

in May 2012, consists of two acquisition channels, both of

them provided with photon counting detectors with MicroChannel Plates (MCP). These two channels are named: the
Far Ultraviolet (FUV) Channel covering the 11501750
wavelength range and the Near Ultraviolet (NUV) Channel
in the 18503200 range.

Keywords Space vehicles: instruments Instrumentation:

spectrographs Ultraviolet: general

2 Scientific requirements

1 Introduction
The WSO-UV (Sachkov et al. 2014) is an international
project developed to guarantee access to the ultraviolet
(UV) range in the post-Hubble Space Telescope era. This
170 cm space telescope has been conceived as a multipurpose observatory incorporating instrumentation for astronomical imaging and spectroscopy. The WSO-UV spectrographs consist of three different instruments: two highresolution (R 55,000) echelle spectrographs and a long
slit spectrograph offering low resolution (R 1000) spectroscopy (Hermanutz et al. 2012; Sachkov 2010; Sachkov
et al. 2014). The camera unit of the WSO-UV is named
ISSIS: the Imaging and Slitless Spectroscopy Instrument.
The baseline for ISSIS design, as approved in the PDR held

A.I. Gmez de Castro (B) G. Beln Perea N. Snchez

J.L. Santiago J. Chirivella
AEGORA, Fac. De CC Matemticas, Universidad Complutense
de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
e-mail: aig@ucm.es
J. Chirivella J. Seijas
SENER Ingeniera y Sistemas S.A., Madrid, Spain

ISSIS is aimed at providing high-spatial resolution and high

UV sensitivity while trying to maximize the wavelength
coverage and the size of the field of view. Slitless spectroscopy is required as an efficient tool for classification
and analysis of astronomical objects. With these conditions,
a list of well-defined key programs to be carried out with
ISSIS was elaborated (Gmez de Castro et al. 2012a), requiring:
High-resolution mapping of weak and nebulous sources
such as micro-jets or gravitational lenses.
The mapping of UV emission lines in extended emission nebulae (H II regions, supernovae remnants, planetary nebulae) and jets (from protostars or from compact
objects).
Efficient spectroscopy of weak sources: from transiting
planets to Active Galactic Nuclei and star-forming galaxies at moderate redshifts (0.5 < z < 1.5).
Resolution of R 500 to study the absorption of the stellar radiation by transiting planets or to determine the terminal velocity of radiatively driven winds of O stars in
Local Group galaxies.
Enhancement of the dynamic range with coronographs
or masks to map faint emission close to bright sources
on sub-arcsec scales: from discs to jets or binary components.

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Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

Table 1 Point source fluxes to reach S/N >10 in 3600 sec (imaging)
Wavelength ()

Flux (erg s1 cm2 1 )

1500

9.0 1017

2300

5.0 1018

Table 2 Point source fluxes to reach S/N=3 in 1000 sec (spectroscopy)

Wavelength ()

Flux (erg s1 cm2 1 )

1215

8.0 1015

1306

6.0 1016

1335

8.0 1016

1550

1.0 1015

2500

1.3 1016

Time resolution as short as 40 milliseconds to track the

evolution of instabilities in discs around compact sources.

Fig. 1 Schematic view of ISSIS instrument. The letters indicate the

main opto-mechanical elements described in the text. The acronyms
stand for: refocusing mechanism (RM), optical relay mirrors (M1 and
M2), mode selection mechanism (MSM), filter wheels (FW), calibration lamp (CL) and MCP detectors (MCP)

The sensitivity requirements are given in Tables 1 and 2.

3 ISSIS optical design and expected performances

ISSIS optical bench assembly (without cover) is depicted in
Fig. 1 (see also, Gmez de Castro et al. 2010, 2012a, 2012b,
2014).
The WSO-UV Fine Guiding Sensors (FGS) focus the
telescope beam on the entrance slits of the spectrographs.
In WSO-UV, ISSIS is located below the primary mirror of
the telescope and above the optical bench. ISSIS captures
the central part of the telescope beam with a mobile pick-off
mirror that acts as a refocusing mechanism (RM). The RM is
needed to fold and adapt the telescope beam to ISSIS optics.
The focal surface of the T170M telescope in WSO-UV is
below ISSIS, at the plane where the spectrographs entrance
slits are. The FGS are also in the same plane. The RM acts
on the intermediate image from the telescope before being
sent to the first mirror of ISSIS optical relay. After the RM,
there is a positive followed by a negative mirror (M1+M2)
to increase the focal length of the system; M1 is an even aspheric mirror with a positive radius of curvature and M2 is a
toroidal mirror with a negative radius of curvature. The focal
length of the T170M is 17 m and the focal length of ISSIS
is 116.573 m providing a final focal ratio of 69 for ISSIS.
Each ISSIS channel is able to operate in imaging mode, slitless spectroscopy mode or calibration mode through the use
of a mode selection mechanism (MSM). On imaging mode,
MSM uses flat mirrors aligned at such an angle that redirects
the light towards one of the channels. Both channels contain
a set of spectral filters that are accommodated in two sets
of filter wheels (FWs) along the optical path. There will be

long-pass and narrow band filters for specific scientific investigations and, additionally, neutral density filters to allow
observations of sources well above the sensitivity limit. ISSIS will be the only UV imager available in space for astronomical uses at the time of WSO-UV launch.
In slitless spectroscopy mode, the system makes use of
flat reflective gratings as dispersive components; they are
located on the MSM. There is one grating per channel to
redirect the light either to the FUV or the NUV detectors.
In nominal spectroscopic mode, the filter wheels are set in
open (no-filter) position. The diffraction gratings have peak
efficiency at 1400 with groove density of 450 lines per
mm for the FUV channel and at 2300 with 250 l/mm for
the NUV channel.
Finally, the calibration mode is used to perform flat-field
calibration of the FUV and NUV detectors on a pixel-topixel basis (high-spatial frequency flat). In this mode, a shutter is used to block the light coming from the telescope. For
calibration, the MSM is set in a configuration that contains a
flat mirror aligned at such an angle that directs the light coming from a calibration subsystem into the end of the optical
path of the FUV or NUV channel (from the FWs to the detectors). The calibration subsystem consists of a deuterium
discharge lamp and two mirrors to project a uniform beam
on the focal plane assembly. The main optical parameters
for ISSIS are summarized in Table 3.
The total efficiency of ISSIS is characterized by the integrated system throughput. This throughput has been determined by taking into account the telescope performance,
the internal reflections in the instrument and the quantum
efficiencies of the MCP detectors, whereas filters transmittance has not been included in the throughput calculations.

Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

179

Table 3 Main characteristics of the ISSIS instrument

FUV channel

NUV channel

Spectral range

11501750

18503200

Peak throughput (imaging)

1400

2500

Field of view: imaging

70 arcsec 75 arcsec

70 arcsec 75 arcsec

Field of view: spectroscopy

36 arcsec 65 arcsec

31 arcsec 61 arcsec

Detector type

CsI MCP

CsTe MCP

Detector diameter

40 mm

40 mm

Detector format (equivalent)

>2048 2048 pix

>2048 2048 pix

Pixel scale

0.036 arcsec

0.036 arcsec

Scale ratio between

<7 %

<7 %

Number of reflections

Temporal resolution

40 ms

40 ms

Slitless spectroscopy resolution

R = 500

R = 500

orthogonal axis

The expected performance of ISSIS in imaging mode involves a total throughput of 1.2 % at 1400 (FUV
channel) and 6.5 % at 2500 (NUV channel). For slitless spectroscopy we obtain throughput peaks of 0.3 %
(1400 ) and 2.9 % (2500 ) for FUV and NUV, respectively. The estimated sensitivity in this section is conservative and based on UVIT-alike detectors1 (Hutchings 2013).
The final provider for ISSIS detectors is yet to be defined.
A comparison of the main characteristics of WSO-ISSIS,
GALEX (Morrissey et al. 2007) and HST in the imaging
and spectroscopy modes is performed. Table 4 shows the
comparison of ISSIS, GALEX and HST (ACS/SBC, WFC3)
in imaging mode (Space Telescope Science Institute 2014a)
and Tables 5 and 6 show the comparison of ISSIS, GALEX
and HST (STIS, COS) (Space Telescope Science Institute
2014c; Space Telescope Science Institute 2014b) in spectroscopy mode. Notice that the quoted spatial resolution corresponds to the PSF integrated over a 1020 minutes exposure time. This includes a significant broadening caused by
the accuracy of the FGS system; FGS guarantee a pointing
accuracy better than 0.1 arcsec at 3 sigma (Shustov et al.
2014). This motion is susceptible to be used to decrease the
MCP detector fatigue; see, for instance Martin et al. (2003)
for the GALEX strategy for this purpose. Moreover, part of
the optical quality loosed by the pointing inaccuracy can
be recovered making use of the photon counting nature of
MCPs detectors. As a result, ISSIS pixel scale has been selected to be 0.036 arcsec/pix though, naively, it may look as
the ISSIS PSF being oversampled.
ISSIS performance is, in all senses, intermediate between
the GALEX wide field imagers and the high sensitivity
1 UVIT

is a wide field imaging instrument for UV-Visible purposes to

be launched by the Indian Space Agency in ASTROSAT.

HST instruments such as the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

(COS). In imaging mode, ISSIS is designed to be like the
Solar Blind Channel (SBC) and the High Resolution Channel (HRC) in the Advanced Camera System (ACS) on board
Hubble. However, ISSIS will improve on ACS spectroscopic
capabilities making use of gratings instead of prisms. ISSIS
is designed as an analysis tool of the UV sky unveiled by
GALEX.
ISSIS features compared with GALEX can be summarized into: higher spatial resolution (about 30 times higher
than GALEX resolution), simple spectroscopic mode with
uniform dispersion and sensitivity below 1300 (ISSIS
short wavelength cut-off is set by the MgF2 short wavelength transmission cut-off, 1150 ). Even thought ISSIS
throughput in the FUV channel is below that of GALEX,
the final ISSIS effective area is higher because of the larger
collecting surface of the WSO-UV telescope. Nevertheless,
WSO-ISSIS has an effective area smaller than the area for
the HST instruments. In order to compare the photometric
efficiencies we plot the effective areas for these instruments
in Figs. 2 and 3. ISSIS detectors contract has not been yet
issued and their performance for the plots has been extrapolated using as baseline the detectors for the UVIT mission.
As shown in the figures, ISSIS sensitivity compares well
with HST instruments in the NUV range with this type of detectors; however, their FUV performance can be improved.

4 Provisions for the performance verification of ISSIS

As usual, ISSIS tests will proceed at the three levels: components, ISSIS at subsystems and system level and final tests
with ISSIS integrated in WSO-UV (see scheme in Fig. 4).
At the component level, the tests are defined as follow:

CsI MCP

a Based

on UVIT detectors sensitivity

0.15 arcsec

2048 2048 pix

CsTe MCP

2048 2048 pix

DETECTOR FORMAT

SPATIAL RESOLUTION
(FWHM)

70 arcsec 75 arcsec

70 arcsec 75 arcsec

FIELD OF VIEW

0.15 arcsec

0.036 arcsec/pix

6.5 %

1.2 %

PEAK EFFICIENCYa

0.036 arcsec/pix

2500

1400

PIXEL SCALE

18503200

11501750

4.3 arcsec

1.5 arcsec/pix

CsI MCP

3840 3840 pix

4572 arcsec

1.8 %

1516

13441786

FUV

PEAK THROUGHPUT

GALEX

FUV

NUV

ISSIS

SPECTRAL RANGE

CHANNEL

5.3 arcsec

1.5 arcsec/pix

Cs2Te MCP

3840 3840 pix

4500 arcsec

3.1 %

2200

17712831

NUV

Table 4 Comparison of the main characteristics and performances of the ISSIS, GALEX and HST instruments in imaging mode

CsTe MCP
0.039 0.039 arcsec/pix
0.07 arcsec

0.034 0.030 arcsec/pix

0.077 0.066 arcsec

2 2051 4096 pix

162 arcsec 162 arcsec

27 % (including filter transmission)

6000

200010000

WFC3 (UVIS)

CsI MCP

1024 1024 pix

34.6 arcsec 30.8 arcsec

7.5 %

1250

11501700

SBC (ACS)

HUBBLE

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Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

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181

Table 5 Comparison of the main characteristics and performances of the ISSIS, GALEX and HST instruments in spectroscopy mode in the FUV
channel
ISSIS

GALEX

STIS HUBBLE

COS HUBBLE

CHANNEL

FUV

FUV

FUV-MAMA

FUV-MAMA

SPECTRAL RANGE

11501750

13441786

11501700

9002150

PEAK THROUGHPUT

1400

1516

1216

1335

PEAK EFFICIENCYa

0.3 %

1.0 %

3.4 % (G140L)

3.4 % (G140L)

FIELD OF VIEW

36 arcsec 65 arcsec

4572 arcsec

25 arcsec 25 arcsec

25 arcsec 25 arcsec

DETECTOR FORMAT

2048 2048 pix

3840 3840 pix

1024 1024 pix

2 16384 1024 pix

CsI MCP

CsI MCP

CsI MCP

CsI MCP

PIXEL SCALE

0.036 arcsec/pix

1.5 arcsec/pix

0.0245 0.0247 arcsec/pix

0.114 arcsec/pix

SPECTRAL RESOLUTION

500

250300

50010010 at 11503100

1600024000 med 20003000 low

DETECTORS EFFICIENCY

8 % at 1400

12 % at 1516

24 % at 1216

26 % at 1335

a Based

on UVIT detectors sensitivity

Table 6 Comparison of the main characteristics and performances of the ISSIS, GALEX and HST instruments in spectroscopy mode in the NUV
channel
ISSIS

GALEX

STIS HUBBLE

COS HUBBLE

CHANNEL

NUV

NUV

NUV-MAMA

NUV-MAMA

SPECTRAL RANGE

18503200

17712831

16003100

16503200
2250

PEAK THROUGHPUT

2500

2200

2537

PEAK EFFICIENCYa

2.9 %

2.1 %

1.7 % (G230L)

1.5 % (G230L)

FIELD OF VIEW

31 arcsec 61 arcsec

4500 arcsec

25 arcsec 25 arcsec

25 arcsec 25 arcsec

DETECTOR FORMAT

2048 2048 pix

3840 3840 pix

1024 1024 pix

1024 1024 pix

CsTe MCP

Cs2Te MCP

CsTe MCP

CsTe MCP

PIXEL SCALE

0.036 arcsec/pix

1.5 arcsec/pix

0.0245 0.0248 arcsec/pix

0.0235 arcsec/pix

SPECTRAL RESOLUTION

500

80150

50010010 at 11503100

1600024000 med 20003000 low

DETECTORS EFFICIENCY

17 % at 2300

8 % at 2200

9 % at 2537

10 % at 2250

a Based

on UVIT detectors sensitivity

Detectors: The tests performed on the detector could include: sensitivity, response as a function of wavelength,
spatial variation of sensitivity, tests to estimate the centroid of the detected photons, photometric non-linearity
in photon-counting mode, gain as a function of MCP voltage, distortions on the detector. Dark rate, dynamic range,
and cosmetic defect fraction will be measured. While
some of these measurements will be repeated often during
the course of subsystem testing and instrument integration, definitive measurements must be made in the final
configuration under realistic environmental conditions, in
the instrument level tests phase.
Filters: The transmission of each filter as a function of
wavelength, spatial variation of sensitivity with position
as a function of wavelength, shift in focus due to the filters.

Mirrors: Reflectivity as a function of wavelength, spatial variation of sensitivity with position as a function of
wavelength, measure of the focus position of the mirrors.
Gratings: Efficiency, wavelength range, length of the
spectra on the detector plane, shift between the object position in the image and the 0th-order spectrum, scattered
and stray-light tests.
Calibration Lamps: The main goal is to measure and characterize the global count-rates of the internal deuterium
(D2) calibration lamp through the filters. Degradation in
the lamps output with time will be also investigated for a
fixed time period.
For ISSIS tests at instrument level, it is required to develop
new facilities for vacuum testing. As today, there are several possibilities being analyzed in Spain and possibly in
Russia. Basic verification tests are: geometric tests, geometric distortion tests, image quality tests, radiometric efficiency, spectroscopy tests, uniformity of the radiometric re-

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Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

Fig. 2 Comparison between the

effective area in logarithmic
scale for ISSIS, GALEX and
SBC in imaging mode

Fig. 3 Comparison between the

effective areas for ISSIS,
GALEX and HST (STIS and
COS) in spectroscopy mode

Fig. 4 Schematic diagram for ISSIS verification tests

sponse, exposure time repeatability, stray-light tests, mechanism functionality and repeatability. The main challenges
for performing the tests of ISSIS involve the development
of a vacuum chamber fully equipped for UV optical tests
and the telescope simulator for the on-axis beam.

A major source of concern during ISSIS integration,

launch and in-flight performance is contamination by molecules and particles of the relevant surfaces (detectors windows and optical elements). Contamination affects not only
to the quality of the image (wavefront) but also to the radiometry of the instrument. Moreover, molecular contaminants polymerize with UV light into knotty blobs, rather
than in uniform layers introducing all sort of features in
the images. An estimate of ISSIS radiometric capabilities
degradation by molecular contamination is shown in Fig. 5
being ISSIS molecular contamination level per optical surface lower than 15 . Threshold requirement is equivalent
to 15 % radiometric degradation al Ly-alpha per surface.
This requirement is roughly equivalent to 1.5 107 g/cm2
during the mission lifetime.

Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

183

Fig. 5 Estimated ISSIS

radiometric efficiency loss by
molecular contamination as a
function of the thickness of the
molecular film

Following the precedent of the SOHO mission

(Schuehle 2003), a cleanliness program will be set to ensure
stable radiometric performance. Thus, cleanliness requirements are to be defined for instruments and spacecraft (the
latter mostly based on the requirements set by the instruments). A Cleanliness Control Plan will govern all activities
related to cleanliness and contamination. The SOHO team
gathered information that will be used to define ISSIS and
WSO-UV cleanliness control plan, very especially the procedures they developed to derive and implement the cleanliness requirements, and how they are monitored and verified.

5 ISSIS basic operation modes

The main operation modes of ISSIS are enumerated below
(Perea and Gmez de Castro 2013):

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

FUV Imaging Accumulation Mode (FUV/IMA).

FUV Imaging Time-Tag Mode (FUV/IMA-Time-TAG).
FUV Spectroscopy Accumulation Mode (FUV/SPEC).
FUV Spectroscopy Time-Tag Mode (FUV/SPEC-TimeTAG).
NUV Imaging Accumulation Mode (NUV/IMA).
NUV Imaging Time-Tag Mode (NUV/IMA-Time-TAG).
NUV Spectroscopy Accumulation Mode (NUV/SPEC).
NUV Spectroscopy Time-Tag Mode (NUV/SPEC-TimeTAG).

Photon events will be processed on board and centroids

will be determined and stored. In TIME-TAG mode, the
precise event timing will be stored with a relative accuracy of 40 ms but only over reduced fields in the detector being photon counting image mode on 10 10 pixels
on the detector and photon counting slitless spectroscopy
mode on 10 300 pixels on the detector. In ACCUM mode,

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Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

the full detector will be available but the events will be coadded for a single pixel and stored (Gmez de Castro 2012;
Kumar et al. 2012).
ISSIS will also be operated in CORONOGRAPHIC
mode. This mode is defined to alleviate the detector fatigue when observing faint structures close to bright sources.
These dead areas on the detector could be implemented with
masks in the photo-cathode. There are still on-going studies
on the best strategies to set these few dead-areas.
Finally, there will also be a CALIBRATION mode to
measure the degradation of the pixel-to-pixel (small scale)
response making use of the deuterium lamp. Photometric
and spectroscopic calibrations will be carried out based on
astronomical sources making use of the information in the
NASA Multimission Archive on the HST and GALEX mission. ISSIS spectroscopic mode is very similar to the low
dispersion mode in the International Ultraviolet Explorer
(IUE). Observations from the IUE INES Final Archive will
be used for this purpose.

From the technical point of view, ISSIS main challenges

are the procurement of high sensitivity FUV detectors and
the development of the facilities/team for the Assembly,
Test and Verification in close coordination with the Russian
WSO-UV team.
WSO-UV will be launched in this decade and it will
be a fundamental tool for the development of astronomical knowledge. WSO-UV will open new opportunities in
planetary science, stellar astrophysics, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. With its launch date, WSO is ideally
placed to provide follow-up studies of the large number of
UV sources found by the GALEX sky survey after the end
of the HST mission.

6 Data handling strategies

References

ISSIS data policy will be to create final products in format similar to high-energy photon counting missions. In the
photon-counting mode, ISSIS will not provide an integrated,
full-frame two-dimensional image but a list of events corresponding to the time of arrival of each photon. The resulting file will be a FITS binary table with information about
the arrival time of the photon, its position in the detector
and a number of flags that will account for the quality of
the measurement and other issues, such as the possible fraction of pile-up. This policy is similar to that of current missions like XMM-Newton and will offer an opportunity to
the high-energy community to use the same analytic tools
they are currently managing for their data. It is important to
notice that the photon-counting mode does not mean a loss
of imaging information since an image can be constructed
in any case by accumulating the photons during the whole
exposure time. In ACCUM mode, data will be provided as
standard FITS images.

Gmez de Castro, A.I.: System Requirements Specification (2012)

Gmez de Castro, A.I., Shustov, B., Sachkov, M., Kappelmann, N.,
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M.T., Seijas, J., Lopez-Martinez, F., Quintana, J., Ubierna, M.,
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7 Conclusions
ISSIS compares well with the previous UV instrumentation
flown in the NASA missions GALEX and HST. The spectroscopic mode has been defined to provide uniform dispersion and photon counting capabilities to study weak sources
such as young planetary systems, solar-like stars and distant
active sources. The coronographic capabilities will make of
ISSIS a unique instrument to resolve jets from their parent
sources and study the impact of UV radiation in the young
planetary disks evolution.

Acknowledgements ISSIS development is being funded by Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce of Spain. We acknowledge
the Russian WSO-UV team for their support in this paper. The science
team at Universidad Complutense de Madrid acknowledges the financial support of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through
grants AYA2008-06423-C03-01 and AYA2011-29754-C03-C01.

Astrophys Space Sci (2014) 354:177185

Sachkov, M., Shustov, B., Gmez de Castro, A.I.: Adv. Space Res. 53,
990 (2014)
Schuehle, U.H.: Cleanliness and calibration stability of uv instruments
on soho, vol. 4853, p. 88 (2003)
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