Rosa Coles is from Pukalani, Maui. She graduated from King Kekaulike High School and currently attends Reed College majoring in Physics and Math. She plans to pursue a Phd in physics to research renewable energy sources and nuclear energy, fusion, quark interactions, and battery science. She enjoys lab, weightlifting, reading and hiking.
Home Island: Maui
High School: Kekaulike High School
Institution when accepted: Reed College
Project Title: A New Era: Creating and Using a CMOS Camera Characterization Pipeline
Project Site: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Kihei HI
Mentor: Charlie Schramka & Zachary Funke
Project Abstract:
The Air Force Research Laboratory is working on developing optical systems for space object tracking, the main three being: The Raven Network, Kolea, and DAO (Deployable, Attritable, Optics). Cameras are a critical component of all these telescopes. Three have been identified and purchased for each system, all of which are CMOS cameras, which are more affordable and potentially more capable than the industry standard CCD: ATIK APX 60 (for the Raven Network), XIMEA GSENSE 6060 (for Kolea), Teledyne COSMOS-66 ( for DAO). Each of these cameras need to be assessed and analyzed to ensure the camera is the best long-term solution, however there is no standardized method for CMOS analysis. The goal of this project is to develop a processing pipeline in python and then to collect and analyze data using the product. There are three main stages to this project, the first being developing the pipeline in python based on the AstroPy CCD data reduction notebook. The next step is collecting lab and on-sky data for each camera. The final stage is analyzing and reporting results, which includes refining the code, since the pipeline should be mostly automated, and reporting the results. Automating camera processing will make the process of improving and developing optical systems more affordable, and reliable, saving valuable time and resources.