 Gain estimation from flat-field ratios

Let independent exposure sums $A,B$ have mean $N$ ADU at each detector pixel, with pure Poisson distribution noise and fixed gain $g$. The delta method gives $A/B\simeq 1+(A-N)/N-(B-N)/N$, so $\mathrm{Var}(A/B)\simeq 2/(gN)$ and $g\simeq 2/(N{E}^2)$. For nonuniform detector pixel means $N_i$, an unweighted spatial ratio variance is instead $(2/g)⟨1/N_i⟩$. This high-count approximation requires linear unsaturated data, bias subtraction and negligible read noise.