Comprehensive Analyses of Comet Siding Spring, Before, During and After Its Mars Encounter

Dr. Jian‐Yang Li will be responsible for leading the reduction and analysis of the broadband and narrowband imaging data of C/Siding Spring collected by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Las Cumbres Obserbatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT). His tasks also include the integration of the results from these two data sets into the results from the analysis of other data sets provided by the team members, participating in the interpretation of results, and the preparation of all publications.

The HST data include 280 images acquired on October 30, 2013, January 21, 2014, March 11, 2014, and during the encounter in October 19 and 20, 2014. The LCOGT data include 339 images acquired intermittently from October 1, 2014 through March 30, 2015. The basic data reduction includes the standard calibration of all images (validation, dark and bias removal, flatfield, radiometric calibration). Note that the reduction effort of HST data is not included in this project. The scientific analysis of these data sets includes aperture photometry, dust production, and color measurements; dust coma morphology analysis; gas production measurement and gas coma morphology. Dr. Li will also be responsible for any archival activity relevant to the HST and LCOGT data sets and the data products.