Comparison of G230LB and G230L

The trade-off between using the G230LB or the G230L (which uses the NUV-MAMA), depends sensitively on the science goals and your source properties.

  • The CCD has read noise, whereas the MAMA does not.
  • The CCD suffers from charge transfer inefficiency (CTI), whereas the NUV-MAMA does not.
  • The CCD does not have bright object limits, whereas the MAMA does.
  • The NUV-MAMA is solar insensitive, whereas the CCD is not.
  • The spatial sampling of the MAMA is better than that of the CCD.
  • The CCD does not enable high time resolution (Dt < 10 seconds), whereas the MAMA does.
  • For red objects, CCD data can suffer from scattered light problems, but the detector PSF of the CCD is much cleaner than that of the NUV-MAMA (see ISR 2022-05 and Section 4.1.6 discussion on scattered light).

Figure 13.22: Comparison of Limiting Magnitudes and Fluxes for G230LB and G230L.
Plotted are the limiting source magnitudes and fluxes for G230LB and G230L to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 per 2-pixel spectral resolution element integrated across the PSF in 1 hour. The prediction due to the Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) effect, computed for the year 2005, is also shown.


Figure 13.23: Comparison of LSFs for G230LB and G230L.