| Type |
Conference Paper |
| Names |
Henry A. Kobulnicky, M. Alexander, B. Brian, M. Meade, B. Whitney, E. Churchwell |
| Proceedings Title |
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society |
| Conference Name |
American Astrnomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #428.07 |
| Volume |
219 |
| Date |
January 1, 2012 |
| URL |
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AAS...21942807K |
| Library Catalog |
NASA ADS |
| Abstract |
The Spitzer Space Telescope Galactic Legacy MidPlane Survey
Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) programs (GLIMPSE I, II, 3D, 360) have surveyed
hundreds of square degrees of the Galactic Plane in four (two for
GLIMPSE 360) mid-infrared bandpasses with the Infrared Array Camera
(IRAC). The resulting GLIMPSE Point Source Catalog contains over 100
million objects and has become a widely used resource. Other large and
Legacy Spitzer programs have used IRAC to survey additional regions
totaling over 100 square degrees. The utility of the data and of the
point source catalogs from ANY IRAC observations is limited, however, by
the fact that the completeness of the photometric catalogs vary
inversely with background surface brightness. This is especially
significant in the 5.8 and 8.0 micron (IRAC1 and IRAC2) bands where
diffuse interstellar PAH features are strong. In this contribution we
use fake star tests to characterize the completeness and reliability of
single-frame, single-band data from the commonly used short-exposure
IRAC observing modes as a function of background surface brightness and
stellar magnitude. We also explore empirically the completeness of the
GLIMPSE Point Source Catalog as a function of background brightness and
magnitude. We provide plots and analytical prescriptions to allow an end
user to asses the completeness over specified magnitude and background
brightness ranges. |