Title: Assessment of Systematic Chromatic Errors that Impact Sub-1% Photometric Precision in Large-Area Sky Surveys

Abstract

Here, we report that meeting the science goals for many current and future ground-based optical large-area sky surveys requires that the calibrated broadband photometry is both stable in time and uniform over the sky to 1% precision or better. Past and current surveys have achieved photometric precision of 1%–2% by calibrating the survey's stellar photometry with repeated measurements of a large number of stars observed in multiple epochs. The calibration techniques employed by these surveys only consider the relative frame-by-frame photometric zeropoint offset and the focal plane position-dependent illumination corrections, which are independent of the source color. However, variations in the wavelength dependence of the atmospheric transmission and the instrumental throughput induce source color-dependent systematic errors. These systematic errors must also be considered to achieve the most precise photometric measurements. In this paper, we examine such systematic chromatic errors (SCEs) using photometry from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) as an example. We first define a natural magnitude system for DES and calculate the systematic errors on stellar magnitudes when the atmospheric transmission and instrumental throughput deviate from the natural system. We conclude that the SCEs caused by the change of airmass in each exposure, the change of the precipitable watermore » vapor and aerosol in the atmosphere over time, and the non-uniformity of instrumental throughput over the focal plane can be up to 2% in some bandpasses. We then compare the calculated SCEs with the observed DES data. For the test sample data, we correct these errors using measurements of the atmospheric transmission and instrumental throughput from auxiliary calibration systems. In conclusion, the residual after correction is less than 0.3%. Moreover, we calculate such SCEs for Type Ia supernovae and elliptical galaxies and find that the chromatic errors for non-stellar objects are redshift-dependent and can be larger than those for stars at certain redshifts.« less

Authors:

Li, T. S.; DePoy, D. L.; Marshall, J. L.; Tucker, D.; Kessler, R.; Annis, J. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Annis, J."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0609-3987"

Bernstein, G. M.; Boada, S.; Burke, D. L.; Finley, D. A.; James, D. J.; Kent, S.; Lin, H.; Marriner, J.; Mondrik, N.; Nagasawa, D.; Rykoff, E. S.; Scolnic, D.; Walker, A. R.; Wester, W. more »; Abbott, T. M. C.; Allam, S.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bertin, E.; Brooks, D.; Capozzi, D.; Rosell, A. Carnero ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-3044-5150"

Kind, M. Carrasco; Carretero, J.; Crocce, M.; Cunha, C. E.; D’Andrea, C. B.; Costa, L. N. da; Desai, S.; Diehl, H. T.; Doel, P.; Flaugher, B.; Fosalba, P.; Frieman, J.; Gaztanaga, E.; Goldstein, D. A. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Goldstein, D. A."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-3461-8661"

Gruen, D.; Gruendl, R. A. ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-4588-6517"

Gutierrez, G.; Honscheid, K.; Kuehn, K.; Kuropatkin, N.; Maia, M. A. G.; Melchior, P.; Miller, C. J.; Miquel, R.; Mohr, J. J.; Neilsen, E.; Nichol, R. C.; Nord, B. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Nord, B."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-6706-8972"

Ogando, R.; Plazas, A. A.; Romer, A. K.; Roodman, A.; Sako, M.; Sanchez, E.; Scarpine, V.; Schubnell, M.; Sevilla-Noarbe, I.; Smith, R. C.; Soares-Santos, M. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Soares-Santos, M."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-6082-8529"

Sobreira, F.; Suchyta, E.; Tarle, G. ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1704-0781"

Thomas, D.; Vikram, V. « less

Publication Date:

Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016

Research Org.:

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1336248

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-06CH11357; AST-1138766; AYA2012-39559; ESP2013-48274; FPA2013-47986

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

The Astronomical Journal (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: The Astronomical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 151; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-3881

Publisher:

IOP Publishing

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS