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L. E. Bergeron (STScI), J. R. Najita (NOAO)
Persistent cosmic ray and bright-source images can significantly reduce data quality and sensitivity, especially for NICMOS observations obtained in orbits that cross the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). We have carried out an on-orbit program designed to test the hypothesis that large numbers of NICMOS readouts can hasten the decay of persistent images. The results of that test are presented here. We also demonstrate some post-observation techniques that can be used to reduce the effect, and make some suggestions for observation scheduling to minimize the impact on future observations.