An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital SkySurvey Imaging Data

Padmanabhan, Nikhil; Schlegel, David J; Finkbeiner, Douglas P; Barentine, J C; Blanton, Michael R; Brewington, Howard J; Gunn, JamesE; Harvanek, Michael; Hogg, David W; Ivezic, Zeljko; Johnston, David; Kent, Stephen M; Kleinman, S J; Knapp, Gillian R; Krzesinski, Jurek; Long, Dan; Neilsen, Jr, Eric H; Nitta, Atsuko; Loomis, Craig; Lupton, Robert H; Roweis, Sam; Snedden, Stephanie A; Strauss, Michael A; Tucker, Douglas L

Title: An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital SkySurvey Imaging Data

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Abstract

We present an algorithm to photometrically calibrate widefield optical imaging surveys, that simultaneously solves for thecalibration parameters and relative stellar fluxes using overlappingobservations. The algorithm decouples the problem of "relative"calibrations from that of "absolute" calibrations; the absolutecalibration is reduced to determining a few numbers for the entiresurvey. We pay special attention to the spatial structure of thecalibration errors, allowing one to isolate particular error modes indownstream analyses. Applying this to the SloanDigital Sky Survey imagingdata, we achieve ~;1 percent relative calibration errors across 8500sq.deg/ in griz; the errors are ~;2 percent for the u band. These errorsare dominated by unmodelled atmospheric variations at Apache PointObservatory. These calibrations, dubbed ubercalibration, are now publicwith SDSS Data Release 6, and will be a part of subsequent SDSS datareleases.

Authors:: Padmanabhan, Nikhil; Schlegel, David J; Finkbeiner, Douglas P; Barentine, J C; Blanton, Michael R; Brewington, Howard J; Gunn, JamesE; Harvanek, Michael; Hogg, David W; Ivezic, Zeljko; Johnston, David; Kent, Stephen M; Kleinman, S J; Knapp, Gillian R; Krzesinski, Jurek; Long, Dan; Neilsen, Jr, Eric H; Nitta, Atsuko; Loomis, Craig; Lupton, Robert H more »« less

Publication Date:: Sun Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2007

Research Org.:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 928769

Report Number(s):: LBNL-61732
Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X; ASJOAB; R&D Project: PHFNP; BnR: 400409900; TRN: US0803255

DOE Contract Number:: DE-AC02-05CH11231

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Astrophysical Journal

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 674; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 2008; Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 99; ALGORITHMS; CALIBRATION; ISOCHRONOUS CYCLOTRONS; SKY; methods: data analysis techniques: photometric catalogssurveys

Citation Formats


                    Padmanabhan, Nikhil, Schlegel, David J, Finkbeiner, Douglas P, Barentine, J C, Blanton, Michael R, Brewington, Howard J, Gunn, JamesE, Harvanek, Michael, Hogg, David W, Ivezic, Zeljko, Johnston, David, Kent, Stephen M, Kleinman, S J, Knapp, Gillian R, Krzesinski, Jurek, Long, Dan, Neilsen, Jr, Eric H, Nitta, Atsuko, Loomis, Craig, Lupton, Robert H, Roweis, Sam, Snedden, Stephanie A, Strauss, Michael A, and Tucker, Douglas L. An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital SkySurvey Imaging Data.  United States: N. p., 2007. 
        Web.

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                    Padmanabhan, Nikhil, Schlegel, David J, Finkbeiner, Douglas P, Barentine, J C, Blanton, Michael R, Brewington, Howard J, Gunn, JamesE, Harvanek, Michael, Hogg, David W, Ivezic, Zeljko, Johnston, David, Kent, Stephen M, Kleinman, S J, Knapp, Gillian R, Krzesinski, Jurek, Long, Dan, Neilsen, Jr, Eric H, Nitta, Atsuko, Loomis, Craig, Lupton, Robert H, Roweis, Sam, Snedden, Stephanie A, Strauss, Michael A, & Tucker, Douglas L. An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital SkySurvey Imaging Data.  United States.

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                    Padmanabhan, Nikhil, Schlegel, David J, Finkbeiner, Douglas P, Barentine, J C, Blanton, Michael R, Brewington, Howard J, Gunn, JamesE, Harvanek, Michael, Hogg, David W, Ivezic, Zeljko, Johnston, David, Kent, Stephen M, Kleinman, S J, Knapp, Gillian R, Krzesinski, Jurek, Long, Dan, Neilsen, Jr, Eric H, Nitta, Atsuko, Loomis, Craig, Lupton, Robert H, Roweis, Sam, Snedden, Stephanie A, Strauss, Michael A, and Tucker, Douglas L. 2007.  
        "An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital SkySurvey Imaging Data".  United States.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/928769.

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@article{osti_928769,

  title        = {An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital SkySurvey Imaging Data},

  author       = {Padmanabhan, Nikhil and Schlegel, David J and Finkbeiner, Douglas P and Barentine, J C and Blanton, Michael R and Brewington, Howard J and Gunn, JamesE and Harvanek, Michael and Hogg, David W and Ivezic, Zeljko and Johnston, David and Kent, Stephen M and Kleinman, S J and Knapp, Gillian R and Krzesinski, Jurek and Long, Dan and Neilsen, Jr, Eric H and Nitta, Atsuko and Loomis, Craig and Lupton, Robert H and Roweis, Sam and Snedden, Stephanie A and Strauss, Michael A and Tucker, Douglas L},

  abstractNote = {We present an algorithm to photometrically calibrate widefield optical imaging surveys, that simultaneously solves for thecalibration parameters and relative stellar fluxes using overlappingobservations. The algorithm decouples the problem of "relative"calibrations from that of "absolute" calibrations; the absolutecalibration is reduced to determining a few numbers for the entiresurvey. We pay special attention to the spatial structure of thecalibration errors, allowing one to isolate particular error modes indownstream analyses. Applying this to the SloanDigital Sky Survey imagingdata, we achieve ~;1 percent relative calibration errors across 8500sq.deg/ in griz; the errors are ~;2 percent for the u band. These errorsare dominated by unmodelled atmospheric variations at Apache PointObservatory. These calibrations, dubbed ubercalibration, are now publicwith SDSS Data Release 6, and will be a part of subsequent SDSS datareleases.},

  doi          = {},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/928769},
  journal      = {Astrophysical Journal},

  issn         = {0004-637X},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 674,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Sun Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2007},

  month        = {Sun Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2007}

}

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