On the Chromaticity of the (NEO)WISE Astrometry

Abstract

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, Wright et al. 2010) and its follow-up Near-Earth Object (NEO) mission (NEOWISE, Mainzer et al. 2011) scan the mid-infrared sky twice a year. The spatial and temporal coverage of the resulting database is of utmost importance for variability studies, in particular of young stellar objects (YSOs) which have red $W1{-}W2$ colors. During such an effort, I noticed subarcsecond position offsets between subsequent visits. The offsets do not appear for targets with small $W1{-}W2$ colors, which points to a chromatic origin in the optics, caused by the spacecraft pointing alternating ``forward'' and ``backward'' from one visit to another. It amounts to 0\farcs1 for targets with $W1{-}W2\approx2$. Consideration of this chromatic offset will improve astrometry. This is of particular importance for NEOs that are generally red.