Abstract
We present here the signal-to-noise (S/N) calculator developed for the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) mission. CUTE is a 6U CubeSat operating in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) observing exoplanetary transits to study their upper atmospheres. CUTE was launched into a low-Earth orbit in September 2021 and it is currently gathering scientific data. As part of the S/N calculator, we also present the error propagation for computing transit depth uncertainties starting from the S/N of the original spectroscopic observations. The CUTE S/N calculator is currently extensively used for target selection and scheduling. The modular construction of the CUTE S/N calculator enables its adaptation and can be used also for other missions and instruments.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Wolfgang Voller for his help in setting up the website and the server. L.F. acknowledge financial support from the Austrian Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft FFG project CARNIVALS P885348. This project was partly funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [J 4596-N]. P.C. acknowledges support and funding by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Erwin Schroedinger Fellowship program J4595-N. We thank the anonymous referee for their comments that helped to significantly improve the paper.
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AGS and LF wrote the manuscript. AGS, LF, PEC, SA , BF and KF contributed to software development. All authors reviewed the manuscript
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Sreejith, A.G., Fossati, L., Cubillos, P.E. et al. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) signal to noise calculator. Astrophys Space Sci 368, 31 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-023-04187-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-023-04187-1