In May 1997 cases came to light where the action of a CAM-CVF observation before an SWS observation led to an increased SWS band 3 detector dark current. This increase above the nominal value approached a factor of 100 in some cases. The dark current decreased with time during the SWS observation and reached the nominal dark current less than 30 minutes after the CAM-CVF observation. This effect can be seen in affected observations by selecting and plotting all the dark currents from the data - the dark currents are enhanced and decrease with time. In severe cases this effect can manifest itself in the AAR by band 3 fluxes being negative and in the SPD by the band 3 up and down scans having different shapes.
No correlation between the dark current and the operation of any other instrumental AOT was seen.
This could only affect observations made before June 1997. After this date SWS observations were not scheduled until after 30 minutes of a CAM-CVF observation.