Kepler pipeline signal-to-noise studies

On average, we find that the S/N of the injected signal is recovered at MS=0.9973(+/-0.0012)xBS-0.0151(+/-0.0049), where MS is the measured S/N and BS is the baseline, or expected, S/N. The 1{sigma} width of the distribution around this correlation is +/-2.64%. This indicates an extremely high fidelity in reproducing the expected detection statistics for single transit events, and provides teams performing their own periodic transit searches the confidence that there is no systematic reduction in transit signal strength introduced by the pipeline.

We discuss the pipeline processes that cause the measured S/N to deviate significantly from the baseline S/N for a small fraction of targets; these are primarily the handling of data adjacent to spacecraft re-pointings and the removal of harmonics prior to the measurement of the S/N. Finally, we outline the further work required to characterize the completeness of the Kepler pipeline.