Wednesday, December 30, 2015

astronomy - SDSS spectra FITS format: what do the rows mean?


This might be in the FITS Header, but I couldn't find it.


I am looking at the FITS files for SDSS 1D spectro images from DR7 using the SDSS Data Archive Server at das.sdss.org (there might be an easier way to do this now with DR12).


http://das.sdss.org/spectro/ holds all FITS files generated by the spectroscopic pipelines.


The URL for a typical FITS file is http://das.sdss.org/spectro/1d_26/0283/1d/spSpec-mmmmm-pppp-fff.fit



to access FITS file spSpec-mmmmm-pppp-fff.fit, where mmmmm is the mjd, pppp is the plate ID number and fff is the fiber ID number.


It is explained here: http://classic.sdss.org/dr5/dm/flatFiles/spSpec.html


that


Primary HDU image: spectrum, continuum-subtracted spectrum, noise in spectrum, mask array.
HDU 1 and 2: Line detections and measurements. Under most circumstances, the line measurements in HDU 2 should be used.
HDU 3: Emission-line redshift measurements
HDU 4: Cross-correlation redshift measurement
HDU 5: Line index measurements
HDU 6: Mask and per-pixel resolution


That is, for primary HDU image holds the spectrum. The first row is the spectrum, the second row is the continuum subtracted spectrum, the third row is the noise in the spectrum (standard deviation, in the same units as the spectrum), the forth row is the mask array. The spectra are binned log-linear. Units are 10^(-17) erg/cm/s^2/Ang.


Question: I see FIVE rows in the primary HDU, not FOUR. What do these values mean?


The header information states:


ARRAY1  = 'SPECTRUM'           / units of (10^-17 erg/s/cm^2/A                  
ARRAY2 = 'CONTINUUM-SUBTRACTED SPECTRUM' / units of (10^-17 erg/s/cm^2/A
ARRAY3 = 'ERROR ' / units of (10^-17 erg/s/cm^2/A
ARRAY4 = 'MASK ' / mask bit array

But what is the fifth array?





EDIT: Solely to prevent link rot, the URL linked below for plate spectra http://data.sdss3.org/datamodel/files/BOSS_SPECTRO_REDUX/RUN2D/PLATE4/spPlate.html presents:


File Format

Number EXTNAME Type Contents
HDU0 NPIX x NFIBER float image Flux in units of 10^-17^ erg/s/cm^2^/Ang
HDU1 IVAR NPIX x NFIBER float image Inverse variance (1/sigma^2^) for HDU 0
HDU2 ANDMASK NPIX x NFIBER 32-bit int image AND mask
HDU3 ORMASK NPIX x NFIBER 32-bit int image OR mask
HDU4 WAVEDISP NPIX x NFIBER float image Wavelength dispersion in pixels
HDU5 fields PLUGMAP binary table Plug-map structure from plPlugMapM file

HDU6 SKY NPIX x NFIBER float image Average sky flux in units of 10^-17^ erg/s/cm^2^/Ang

The data I see for spSpec-53166-1615-513.fit are:


HDU0: 127.76799774  127.74199677  127.71600342  127.68900299  129.7460022

HDU1: 3.67299652e+00 3.88988495e+00 4.13349915e+00 4.10649872e+00

HDU2: 7.47320271 7.04110146 6.8415041 6.68683195 6.52122736 6.4465971

HDU3: 8.38860800e+07 1.67772160e+07 1.67772160e+07 0.00000000e+00


HDU4: 5.96072006 5.84291983 5.67241001 5.57223988 5.43919992


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