Cited by 159Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, PhenomenaAstronomy and Astrophysical ResearchCosmology and Gravitation Theories

The Target-selection Pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

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Myers, Adam D., Moustakas, John, Bailey, Stephen, Weaver, Benjamin A., Cooper, Andrew P., Forero-Romero, Jaime E., Abolfathi, Bela, Alexander, David M. +46 more·2023·The Astronomical Journal

Abstract

In 2021 May, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) began a 5 yr survey of approximately 50 million total extragalactic and Galactic targets. The primary DESI dark-time targets are emission line galaxies, luminous red galaxies, and quasars. In bright time, DESI will focus on two surveys known as the Bright Galaxy Survey and the Milky Way Survey. DESI also observes a selection of “secondary” targets for bespoke science goals. This paper gives an overview of the publicly available pipeline ( desitarget ) used to process targets for DESI observations. Highlights include details of the different DESI survey targeting phases, the targeting ID ( TARGETID ) used to define unique targets, the bitmasks used to indicate a particular type of target, the data model and structure of DESI targeting files, and examples of how to access and use the desitarget code base. This paper will also describe “supporting” DESI target classes, such as standard stars, sky locations, and random catalogs that mimic the angular selection function of DESI targets. The DESI target-selection pipeline is complex and sizable; this paper attempts to summarize the most salient information required to understand and work with DESI targeting data.

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  • The quality of exposures in large campaigns remains essential to downstream tasks such as astrometric and photometric measurements and target selection.

    “Despite the increase in scope and complexity of future imaging surveys, the quality of exposures in large campaigns will remain essential to downstream tasks, such as astrometric (e.g., Lang et al. 2009), and photometric (e.g., Stubbs & Tonry 2006) measurements, and target selection to facilitate follow-up studies (e.g., Myers et al. 2023).”

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Research works printed but not linked: 12

  1. Alexander, D. M., Davis, T. M., Chaussidon, E., et al. 2022, arXiv:2208.08517 · arXiv
  2. Chaussidon, E., Yèche, C., Palanque-Delabrouille, N., et al. 2022a, arXiv:2208.08511 · arXiv
  3. Colless, M., Peterson, B. A., Jackson, C., et al. 2003, arXiv:astro-ph/0306581 · arXiv
  4. Cooper, A. P., Koposov, S. E., Allende Prieto, C., et al. 2022, arXiv:2208. 08514
  5. DESI Collaboration, Aghamousa, A., Aguilar, J., et al. 2016a, arXiv:1611. 00037
  6. DESI Collaboration, Aghamousa, A., Aguilar, J., et al. 2016b, arXiv:1611. 00036
  7. Dey, A., Najita, J. R., Koposov, S. E., et al. 2022, arXiv:2208.11683 · arXiv
  8. Guy, J., Bailey, S., Kremin, A., et al. 2022, arXiv:2209.14482 · arXiv
  9. Hahn, C., Wilson, M. J., Ruiz-Macias, O., et al. 2022, arXiv:2208.08512 · arXiv
  10. Lan, T.-W., Tojeiro, R., Armengaud, E., et al. 2022, arXiv:2208.08516 · arXiv
  11. Levi, M., Bebek, C., Beers, T., et al. 2013, arXiv:1308.0847 · arXiv
  12. Raichoor, A., Moustakas, J., Newman, J. A., et al. 2022, arXiv:2208.08513 · arXiv

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Authors
Myers, A. D., Moustakas, J., Bailey, S., Weaver, B. A., Cooper, A. P., Forero-Romero, J. E., Abolfathi, B., Alexander, D. M., Brooks, D., Chaussidon, E., Chuang, C.-H., Dawson, K., Dey, A., Dey, B., Dhungana, G., Doel, P., Fanning, K., Gaztañaga, E., A Gontcho, S. G., Gonzalez-Morales, A. X., Hahn, C., Herrera-Alcantar, H. K., Honscheid, K., Ishak, M., Karim, T., Kirkby, D., Kisner, T., Koposov, S. E., Kremin, A., Lan, T.-W., Landriau, M., Lang, D., Levi, M. E., Magneville, C., Napolitano, L., Martini, P., Meisner, A., Newman, J. A., Palanque-Delabrouille, N., Percival, W., Poppett, C., Prada, F., Raichoor, A., Ross, A. J., Schlafly, E. F., Schlegel, D., Schubnell, M., Tan, T., Tarle, G., Wilson, M. J., Yèche, C., Zhou, R., Zhou, Z., & Zou, H.
Affiliations
  • University of Wyoming (US)
  • Siena College (US)
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
  • NSF NOIRLab (US)
  • National Tsing Hua University (TW)
  • Universidad de Los Andes (CO)
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
  • Durham University (GB)
  • University College London (GB)
  • Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
  • University of Utah (US)
  • University of Pittsburgh (US)
  • Southern Methodist University (US)
  • The Ohio State University (US)
  • Institute of Space Sciences (ES)
  • Universidad de Guanajuato (MX)
  • The University of Texas at Dallas (US)
  • Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • National Taiwan University (TW)
  • Perimeter Institute (CA)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • University of Waterloo (CA)
  • Space Sciences Laboratory (US)
  • Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (ES)
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US)
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Corresponding author
Myers, Adam D.
Venue
The Astronomical Journal
Published
2023-01-11
Volume
165
Issue
2
Pages
50
ISSN
  • 0004-6256 (ISSN-L)
  • 1538-3881
OpenAlex
W4292421616
Cited by
158
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 40 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 1
FWCI
18.28
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Astronomical Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Durham Research Online (Durham University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (acceptedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
  • Apollo
  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (cc-by)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0019022, DE-SC0020086, DE-AC02-05CH11231)
  • Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (109-2112-M-007-011-MY3)
  • National Science Foundation (AST-0950945)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
Keywords
DESI, target selection, emission-line galaxies, luminous red galaxies, quasars, standard stars, Dark Energy Survey

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