Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: We describe a procedure for background subtracting Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging that improves the resulting detection and photometry of large galaxies on the sky. Within each SDSS drift scan run, we mask out detected sources and then fit a smooth function to the variation of the sky background. This procedure has been applied to all SDSS-III Data Release 8 images, and the results are available as part of that data set. We have tested the effect of our background subtraction on the photometry of large galaxies by inserting fake galaxies into the raw pixels, reanalyzing the data, and measuring them after background subtraction. Our technique results in no size-dependent bias in galaxy fluxes up to half-light radii r 50 ∼ 100 arcsec; in contrast, for galaxies of that size the standard SDSS photometric catalog underestimates fluxes by about 1.5 mag. Our results represent a substantial improvement over the standard SDSS catalog results and should form the basis of any analysis of nearby galaxies using the SDSS imaging data.
Source: The Astronomical Journal
Institution: New York University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Yale University, Vanderbilt University, Princeton University, Ohio State University, California Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, University of Portsmouth, New Mexico State University, York University, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Awards: G4325766086, TRACKING GALAXY GROWTH: GALEX / SPITZER /AND ONE HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND SPECTROSCOPIC REDSHIFTS:TO TRACK THE GROWTH OF GALAXIES OVER THE LAST, MICHAEL BLANTON/ NEW YORK UNIVERSITYA NASA-SLOAN ATLAS OF THE NEARBY GALAXIESASTRONOMERS AND ASTROPHYSICISTS ARE STRIVING TO LEARN HOW THE POPULATI
OpenAlex ID: W2128886718