Detection of a peculiar noise type in the TESS ”fast” light curves

Kurzfassung

We present the detection of a peculiar high-frequency noise component in the 20 s cadence Simple Aperture Photometry light curve of Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite. This effect (labeled as blue noise) may be attributed to the pointing instability (also known as satellite jitter) of the satellite. We present a common technique used in the mitigation of the jitter, by decorrelating against the subpixel position of the photo-center of the point-spread function of the star. We also show that a simple linear or polynomial technique may not yield satisfactory corrections, as the behavior or attitude of the noise properties may change considerably throughout the light curve.