The Data Reduction Pipeline for the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

Nidever, D. L. and Holtzman, J. A. and Prieto, C. A. and Beland, S. and Bender, C. and Mészáros, Szabolcs (2015) The Data Reduction Pipeline for the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment. ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL, 150 (6). ISSN 0004-6256

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Abstract

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), part of the Sloan DigitalSky Survey III, explores the stellar populations of the Milky Way using the Sloan 2.5-m telescopelinked to a high resolution (R∼22,500), near-infrared (1.51-1.70 μm) spectrograph with 300 opticalfibers. For over 150,000 predominantly red giant branch stars that APOGEE targeted across theGalactic bulge, disks and halo, the collected high S/N (>100 per half-resolution element) spectraprovide accurate (∼0.1 km s−1) radial velocities, stellar atmospheric parameters, and precise (.0.1dex) chemical abundances for about 15 chemical species. Here we describe the basic APOGEE datareduction software that reduces multiple 3D raw data cubes into calibrated, well-sampled, combined1D spectra, as implemented for the SDSS-III/APOGEE data releases (DR10, DR11 and DR12). Theprocessing of the near-IR spectral data of APOGEE presents some challenges for reduction, includingautomated sky subtraction and telluric correction over a 3◦–diameter field and the combination ofspectrally dithered spectra. We also discuss areas for future improvement.

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