Work

A Maximum Likelihood Method to Improve Faint‐Source Flux and Color Estimates

Year: 1998

Type: article

Abstract: Flux estimates for faint sources or transients are systematically biased high because there are far more truly faint sources than bright. Corrections that account for this effect are presented as a function of signal‐to‐noise ratio and the (true) slope of the faint‐source number‐flux relation. The corrections depend on the source being originally identified in the image in which it is being photometered. If a source has been identified in other data, the corrections are different; a prescription for calculating the corrections is presented. Implications of these corrections for analyses of surveys are discussed; the most important is that sources identified at signal‐to‐noise ratios of 4 or less are practically useless.

Source: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

DOI: 10.1086/316173

Authors: David W. Hogg, Edwin L. Turner

Institutions: California Institute of Technology, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

Language: English

Topic: Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

Subfield: Instrumentation

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Science Foundation

Award: Astrophysical Studies of Gravitational Lenses, Faint Galaxies, Active Galactic Nuclei, and Pulsars