The DOI matches its Crossref record; 45 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data
Open accessAbstract
We present an algorithm to photometrically calibrate wide-field optical imaging surveys, which simultaneously solves for the calibration parameters and relative stellar fluxes using overlapping observations. The algorithm decouples the problem of "relative" calibrations from that of "absolute" calibrations; the absolute calibration is reduced to determining a few numbers for the entire survey. We pay special attention to the spatial structure of the calibration errors, allowing one to isolate particular error modes in downstream analyses. Applying this to the SDSS imaging data, we achieve ~1% relative calibration errors across 8500 deg 2 in griz ; the errors are ~2% for the u band. These errors are dominated by unmodeled atmospheric variations at Apache Point Observatory. These calibrations, dubbed "ubercalibration," are now public with SDSS Data Release 6 and will be a part of subsequent SDSS data releases.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“SDSS, PS1, and DES data taken in good photometric conditions have approached the LSST requirement of 1% photometric calibration ( Padmanabhan et al. 2008; Schla fl y et al. 2012; Burke et al. 2018 ) , although measurements with ground-based telescopes typically produce data with errors a factor of two or so larger.”
From LSST: From Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products (2019) · cites this paper as Padmanabhan et al. 2008
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Schlegel, D. J., Finkbeiner, D. P., & Davis, M. (1998) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/305772 · Cited by 15,126
Self-citationThe Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
York, D., Adelman, J., Anderson, J., Anderson, S., Annis, J., Bahcall, N., Bakken, J., Barkhouser, R., Bastian, S., Berman, E., et al. (2000) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/301513 · Cited by 8,368
Self-citationEisenstein, D. J., Zehavi, I., Hogg, D. W., Scoccimarro, R., Blanton, M. R., Nichol, R. C., Scranton, R., Seo, H., Tegmark, M., Zheng, Z., et al. (2005) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/466512 · Cited by 4,641
Self-citationUBVRI photometric standard stars in the magnitude range 11.5-16.0 around the celestial equator
Landolt, A. U. (1992) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/116242 · Cited by 4,184
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric System
Fukugita, M., Ichikawa, T., Gunn, J. E., Doi, M., Shimasaku, K., & Schneider, D. P. (1996) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/117915 · Cited by 3,033
Self-citationSloan Digital Sky Survey: Early Data Release
Stoughton, C., Lupton, R. H., Bernardi, M., Blanton, M. R., Burles, S. M., Castander, F. J., Connolly, A. J., Eisenstein, D. J., Frieman, J. A., Hennessy, G. S., et al. (2002) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/324741 · Cited by 2,389
Self-citationThe 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Gunn, J. E., Siegmund, W. A., Mannery, E. J., Owen, R. E., Hull, C. L., Leger, R. F., Carey, L. N., Knapp, G. R., York, D. G., Boroski, W. N., et al. (2006) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/500975 · Cited by 2,373
Self-citationSecondary standard stars for absolute spectrophotometry
Oke, J. B., & Gunn, J. (1983) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/160817 · Cited by 2,220
Self-citationThe Three‐Dimensional Power Spectrum of Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Tegmark, M., Blanton, M. R., Strauss, M. A., Hoyle, F., Schlegel, D. J., Scoccimarro, R., Vogeley, M. S., Weinberg, D. H., Zehavi, I., Berlind, A. A., et al. (2004) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/382125 · Cited by 1,790
Self-citationThe Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric Camera
Gunn, J. E., Carr, M., Rockosi, C., Sekiguchi, M., Berry, K., Elms, B., de Haas, E., Ivezić, Ž., Knapp, G., Lupton, R., et al. (1998) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/300645 · Cited by 1,692
Self-citationSmith, J. A., Tucker, D. L., Kent, S., Richmond, M., Fukugita, M., Ichikawa, T., Ichikawa, S., Jorgensen, A. M., Uomoto, A. K., Gunn, J. E., et al. (2002) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/339311 · Cited by 1,619
Self-citationCosmological constraints from the SDSS luminous red galaxies
Tegmark, M., Eisenstein, D. J., Strauss, M. A., Weinberg, D. H., Blanton, M. R., Frieman, J. A., Fukugita, M., Gunn, J. E., Hamilton, A. J. S., Knapp, G. R., et al. (2006) · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields · doi:10.1103/physrevd.74.123507 · Cited by 1,479
Self-citationNew York University Value-Added Galaxy Catalog: A Galaxy Catalog Based on New Public Surveys
Blanton, M. R., Schlegel, D. J., Strauss, M. A., Brinkmann, J., Finkbeiner, D. P., Fukugita, M., Gunn, J. E., Hogg, D. W., Ivezić, Ž., Knapp, G. R., et al. (2005) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/429803 · Cited by 1,234
Self-citationThe Second Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Abazajian, K. N., Adelman-McCarthy, J., Agüeros, M. A., Allam, S., Anderson, K. S. J., Anderson, S. F., Annis, J., Bahcall, N. A., Baldry, I. K., Bastian, S., et al. (2004) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/421365 · Cited by 1,126
Self-citationThe Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Adelman-McCarthy, J., Agüeros, M. A., Allam, S., Anderson, K. S. J., Anderson, S. F., Annis, J., Bahcall, N. A., Baldry, I. K., Barentine, J. C., Berlind, A. A., et al. (2006) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1086/497917 · Cited by 1,109
Self-citationThe First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Abazajian, K. N., Adelman-McCarthy, J., Ageros, M. A., Allam, S., Anderson, S. F., Annis, J., Bahcall, N. A., Baldry, I. K., Bastian, S., Berlind, A. A., et al. (2003) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/378165 · Cited by 971
Self-citationAstrometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Pier, J. R., Munn, J. A., Hindsley, R. B., Hennessy, G. S., Kent, S. M., Lupton, R. H., & Ivezić, Ž. (2003) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/346138 · Cited by 908
Self-citationPossible gravitational microlensing of a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Alcock, C. R., Akerlof, C. W., Allsman, R. A., Axelrod, T. S., Bennett, D. P., Chan, S., Cook, K. H., Freeman, K. C., Griest, K., Marshall, S. L., et al. (1993) · Nature · doi:10.1038/365621a0 · Cited by 767
The Third Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Abazajian, K. N., Adelman-McCarthy, J., Agüeros, M. A., Allam, S., Anderson, K. S. J., Anderson, S. F., Annis, J., Bahcall, N. A., Baldry, I. K., Bastian, S., et al. (2005) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/427544 · Cited by 750
Self-citationA Photometricity and Extinction Monitor at the Apache Point Observatory
Hogg, D. W., Finkbeiner, D. P., Schlegel, D. J., & Gunn, J. E. (2001) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/323103 · Cited by 742
Self-citationThe Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Adelman-McCarthy, J., Agüeros, M. A., Allam, S., Anderson, K. S. J., Anderson, S. F., Annis, J., Bahcall, N. A., Bailer‐Jones, C. A. L., Baldry, I. K., Barentine, J. C., et al. (2007) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1086/518864 · Cited by 742
Self-citationEvidence for gravitational microlensing by dark objects in the Galactic halo
Aubourg, É., Bareyre, P., Bréhin, S., Gros, M., Lachièze-Rey, M., Laurent, B., Lesquoy, É., Magneville, C., Milsztajn, A., Moscoso, L., et al. (1993) · Nature · doi:10.1038/365623a0 · Cited by 652
UBVRI photometric standard stars around the celestial equator
Landolt, A. U. (1983) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/113329 · Cited by 633
The effect of red noise on planetary transit detection
Pont, F. J., Zucker, S., & Queloz, D. P. (2006) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11012.x · Cited by 551
SDSS data management and photometric quality assessment
Ivezić, Ž., Lupton, R. H., Schlegel, D. J., Boroski, W. N., Adelman-McCarthy, J., Yanny, B., Kent, S., Stoughton, C., Finkbeiner, D. P., Padmanabhan, N., et al. (2004) · Astronomische Nachrichten · doi:10.1002/asna.200410285 · Cited by 467
Self-citationBessell, M. S. (2005) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.41.082801.100251 · Cited by 455
Stellar spectrophotometric atlas, wavelengths from 3130 to 10800 A
Gunn, J. E., & Stryker, L. L. (1983) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1086/190861 · Cited by 380
Self-citationThe clustering of luminous red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data
Padmanabhan, N., Schlegel, D. J., Seljak, U., Makarov, A., Bahcall, N. A., Blanton, M. R., Brinkmann, J. V., Eisenstein, D. J., Finkbeiner, D. P., Gunn, J. E., et al. (2007) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11593.x · Cited by 360
Self-citationThe Sloan Digital Sky Survey monitor telescope pipeline
Tucker, D. L., Kent, S., Richmond, M., Annis, J. T., Smith, J. A., Allam, S., Rodgers, C. T., Stute, J. L., Adelman-McCarthy, J., Brinkmann, J., et al. (2006) · Astronomische Nachrichten · doi:10.1002/asna.200610655 · Cited by 336
Self-citationMicrowave Interstellar Medium Emission Observed by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
Finkbeiner, D. P. (2004) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/423482 · Cited by 331
Self-citationIvezić, Ž., Smith, J. A., Miknaitis, G. A., Lin, H., Tucker, D. L., Lupton, R. H., Gunn, J. E., Knapp, G. R., Strauss, M. A., Sesar, B., et al. (2007) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/519976 · Cited by 319
Self-citationA rediscussion of the atmospheric extinction and the absolute spectral-energy distribution of VEGA
Hayes, D. S., & Latham, D. W. (1975) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/153548 · Cited by 315
How to Make Maps from Cosmic Microwave Background Data without Losing Information
Tegmark, M. (1997) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/310631 · Cited by 239
The Elixir System: Data Characterization and Calibration at the Canada‐France‐Hawaii Telescope
Magnier, E. A., & Cuillandre, J. (2004) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1086/420756 · Cited by 227
CCD ensemble photometry on an inhomogeneous set of exposures
Honeycutt, R. K. (1992) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1086/133015 · Cited by 187
Blake, C., Collister, A., Bridle, S., & Lahav, O. (2007) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11263.x · Cited by 162
Finlator, K., Ivezić, Ž., Fan, X., Strauss, M. A., Knapp, G. R., Lupton, R. H., Gunn, J. E., Rockosi, C. M., Anderson, J. E., Csabai, I., et al. (2000) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/316824 · Cited by 134
Self-citationToward 1% Photometry: End‐to‐End Calibration of Astronomical Telescopes and Detectors
Stubbs, C. W., & Tonry, J. L. (2006) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/505138 · Cited by 105
An imaging K-band survey - I. The catalogue, star and galaxy counts
Glazebrook, K., Peacock, J. A., Collins, C. A., & Miller, L. (1994) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/266.1.65 · Cited by 99
Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging of Low Galactic Latitude Fields: Technical Summary and Data Release
Finkbeiner, D. P., Padmanabhan, N., Schlegel, D. J., Carr, M. A., Gunn, J. E., Rockosi, C. M., Sekiguchi, M., Lupton, R. H., Knapp, G. R., Ivezić, Ž., et al. (2004) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/425050 · Cited by 89
Self-citationSupernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud - Initial observations at Cerro Tololo
Blanco, V. M., Gregory, B., Hamuy, M., Heathcote, S. R., Phillips, M. M., Suntzeff, N. B., Terndrup, D. M., Walker, A. R., Williams, R. E., Pastoriza, M. G., et al. (1987) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/165577 · Cited by 61
Selection of Metal‐poor Giant Stars Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric System
Helmi, A., Ivezić, Ž., Prada, F., Pentericci, L., Rockosi, C. M., Schneider, D. P., Grebel, E. K., Harbeck, D., Lupton, R. H., Gunn, J. E., et al. (2003) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/367536 · Cited by 57
Self-citationThe Flat Sky: Calibration and Background Uniformity in Wide Field Astronomical Images
Chromey, F. R., & Hasselbacher, D. A. (1996) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1086/133817 · Cited by 51
Correlation function constraints on large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies
Fong, R., Hale-Sutton, D., & Shanks, T. (1992) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/257.4.650 · Cited by 10
Photometric Calibration and Large-Scale Clustering in the Universe
Fong, R., Metcalfe, N., & Shanks, T. (1994) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-011-1146-1_61 · Cited by 3
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 9
- Adelman-McCarthy, J. K., etal 2007b, ApJS, submitted (arXiv:0707.3413) · arXiv
- Gorski, K. M., Hivon, E. & Wandelt, B. D. 1999, in Proc. MPA/ESO Conf., Evolution of Large-Scale Structure: From Recombination to Garching, ed. A. J. Banday, R. K. Sheth, & L. Da Costa (Garching: ESO), 37
- Juric, M., etal 2005, preprint (astro-ph/0510520) · arXiv
- Lupton, R. H., Gunn, J. E., Ivezic, Z., Knapp, G. R., Kent, S. & Yasuda, N. 2001, in ASP Conf. Ser. 238, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems X, ed. F. R. Harnden, Jr., F. A. Primini, & H. E. Payne (San Francisco: ASP), 269
- Maddox S. J., 1990, MNRAS, 246, 433
- Manfroid J., 1993, A&A, 271, 714
- Manfroid J., 1995, A&AS, 113, 587
- Press, W. H., Teukolsky, S. A., Vetterling, W. T. & Flannery, B. P. 1992, Numerical Recipes in FORTRAN: The Art of Scientific Computing (2nd ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press)
- Udalski A., 1992, Acta Astron., 42, 253
Cited by
Sorted by citations
MEASURING REDDENING WITH SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY STELLAR SPECTRA AND RECALIBRATING SFD
Schlafly, E., & Finkbeiner, D. (2010) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/737/2/103 · Cited by 3,969
Self-citationTHE SEVENTH DATA RELEASE OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY
Abazajian, K. N., Adelman-McCarthy, J. K., Agüeros, M. A., Allam, S. S., Prieto, C. A., An, D., Anderson, K. S. J., Anderson, S. F., Annis, J., Bahcall, N. A., et al. (2009) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/182/2/543 · Cited by 5,341
Self-citationLSST: From Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
Ivezić, Ž., Kahn, S. M., Tyson, J. A., Abel, B., Acosta, E., Allsman, R., Alonso, D., AlSayyad, Y., Anderson, S. F., Andrew, J., et al. (2019) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab042c · Cited by 4,357
Self-citationAlam, S., Ata, M., Bailey, S., Beutler, F., Bizyaev, D., Blazek, J. A., Bolton, A. S., Brownstein, J. R., Burden, A., Chuang, C.-H., et al. (2017) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stx721 · Cited by 3,056
Self-citationTHE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH DATA RELEASES OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY: FINAL DATA FROM SDSS-III
Alam, S., Albareti, F. D., Prieto, C. A., Anders, F., Anderson, S. F., Anderton, T., Andrews, B. H., Armengaud, E., Aubourg, É., Bailey, S., et al. (2015) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/219/1/12 · Cited by 2,491
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Padmanabhan, N., Schlegel, D. J., Finkbeiner, D. P., Barentine, J. C., Blanton, M. R., Brewington, H. J., Gunn, J. E., Harvanek, M., Hogg, D. W., Ivezić, Ž., Johnston, D., Kent, S. M., Kleinman, S. J., Knapp, G. R., Krzesinski, J., Long, D., Neilsen, Jr., Nitta, A., Loomis, C., Lupton, R. H., Roweis, S., Snedden, S. A., Strauss, M. A., & Tucker, D. L.
- Affiliations
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- Udaipur Solar Observatory (IN)
- New York University (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Subaru (Japan) (JP)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2008-02-20
- Volume
- 674
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1217-1233
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W1572376656
- Cited by
- 591
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 60 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 52 · 2013: 42 · 2012: 60
- FWCI
- 52.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (acceptedVersion)
- University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) (submittedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Texas ScholarWorks (Texas Digital Library) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Texas Digital Library (University of Texas)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Princeton University
- Ohio State University
- University of Washington
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Pittsburgh
- Case Western Reserve University
- Drexel University
- Universität Basel
- University of Portsmouth
- New Mexico State University
- University of Cambridge
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
- U.S. Naval Observatory
- Fermilab
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
- Keywords
- photometric calibration, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, wide-field optical imaging, relative calibration, absolute calibration, overlapping observations, calibration error, atmospheric variability, Apache Point Observatory
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review