Elodie Choquet (JPL)

Post-processing techniques for high-contrast imaging & overview of the ALICE program // High-contrast imaging is a very powerful technique to study exoplanetary systems. By monitoring the outer regions of nearby stars, it enables to constrain long-period exoplanet demographics, and to study planetary system dynamics. Furthermore, by collecting photons directly coming from the planet, it is one of only two techniques (with transit spectroscopy) that can measure planet spectra and study their atmospheric composition. However, this technique presents many technical challenges, regarding both instrumental design and data processing. In my talk, I will review the state-of-the-art of post-processing techniques for high-contrast imaging, applicable both for ground-based and space-based instruments. I will also point to some good practices to observe when analyzing high-contrast imaging data, and on-going research to improve the performance of post-processing techniques. Finally, I will illustrate the efficiency of advanced post-processing techniques on HST-NICMOS archival data, by presenting the ALICE project and its results.