NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; Wright et al. 2010) mapped the sky at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm (W1, W2, W3, W4) in 2010 with an angular resolution of 6.1", 6.4", 6.5", & 12.0" in the four bands. WISE achieved 5σ point source sensitivities better than 0.08, 0.11, 1 and 6 mJy in unconfused regions on the ecliptic in the four bands. Sensitivity improves toward the ecliptic poles due to denser coverage and lower zodiacal background.
The All-Sky Release includes all data taken during the WISE full cryogenic mission phase, 7 January 2010 to 6 August 2010, that were processed with improved calibrations and reduction algorithms. Release data products include an Atlas of 18,240 match-filtered, calibrated and coadded image sets, a Source Catalog containing positional and photometric information for over 563 million objects detected on the WISE images, and an Explanatory Supplement that is a guide to the format, content, characteristics and cautionary notes for the WISE All-Sky Release products.
Using a spectroscopically confirmed sample of M giants, M dwarfs, and quasars from the LAMOST survey, we assess how well Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Two Micron All Sky Survey color cuts can be used to select M giant stars. The WISE bands are very efficient at separating M giants from M dwarfs, and we present a simple classification that can produce a clean and relatively complete sample of M giants. We derive a new photometric relation to estimate the metallicity for M giants, calibrated using data from the APOGEE survey. We find a strong correlation between the (W1-W2) color and [M/H], where almost all of the scatter is due to photometric uncertainties. We show that previous photometric distance relations, which are mostly based on stellar models, may be biased and devise a new empirical distance relation, investigating trends with metallicity and star formation history. Given these relations, we investigate the properties of M giants in the Sagittarius stream. The offset in the orbital plane between the leading and trailing tails is reproduced, and by identifying distant M giants in the direction of the Galactic anticenter, we confirm that the previously detected debris in the outer halo is the apocenter of the trailing tail. We also find tentative evidence supporting an existing overdensity near the leading tail in the northern Galactic hemisphere, possibly an extension to the trailing tail (so-called Branch C). We have measured the metallicity distribution along the stream, finding a clear metallicity offset between the leading and trailing tails, in agreement with models for the stream formation. We include an online table of M giants to facilitate further studies.
We present results from a systematic study of star formation in local galaxy clusters using 22um data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The 69 systems in our sample are drawn from the Cluster Infall Regions Survey, and all have robust mass determinations. The all-sky WISE data enable us to quantify the amount of star formation, as traced by 22um, as a function of radius well beyond R_200_, and investigate the dependence of total star formation rate upon cluster mass. We find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies increases with cluster radius but remains below the field value even at 3R_200_. We also find that there is no strong correlation between the mass-normalized total specific star formation rate and cluster mass, indicating that the mass of the host cluster does not strongly influence the total star formation rate of cluster members.
The WISE 3-Band Cryo Data Release products are comprised of data taken during the mission's 3-Band Cryo survey phase. This phase covers the time following the exhaustion of solid hydrogen in the WISE payload outer cryogen tank, while the detectors and telescope were still cooled by the inner cryogen tank. During this time, WISE's W1, W2 and W3 bands were operational and continued to acquire useful data, but the W4 detector was saturated by thermal emission from the warming telescope. The sensitivity achieved in the W1 and W2 bands was similar to that during the full cryogenic mission phase. The W3 measurement sensitivity was degraded and decreased steadily during the 3-Band Cryo phase because of the increasing telescope temperature and decreasing exposure times. WISE scanned approximately 30% of the sky during the 3-Band Cryo survey phase continuing with the same strategy that was used during the full cryogenic survey.
The following table contains brief descriptions of all metadata information that is relevant to the production of the Atlas images and Source Catalog. The table contains the (RA, DEC) of the center of the Tile. Much of the information in this table is processing-specific and may not be of interest to general users (e.g., flags indicating whether frames have been processed successfully or not, and the date and time of the start of the pipeline processing, etc.). The metadata table also contains some characterization and derived statistics of the coadd image Tile, basic photometric parameters used for photometry and derived statistics for extracted sources and artifacts. For example, it contains median pixel values of the coadded sky coverage map, the number of sources with profile-fit photometry Signal-to-Noise (SNR) greater than 3, and the total number of real sources affected by artifacts such as optical ghosts, etc.
WISE 3-Band Cryo Known Solar System Object Possible Association List
Short Name:
WISE 3-Band SSO
Date:
01 Oct 2018 20:27:16
Publisher:
NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive
Description:
The WISE 3-Band Cryo Single Exposure (L1b) Source Table contains positions and photometry in the 3.4, 4.6 and 12 μm bands for 3,703,319,374 sources extracted from observations made during the WISE 3-Band Cryo survey phase, 6 August 2010 through 29 September 2010. WISE scanned approximately 30% of the sky during this period when the telescope and focal planes operated at a slightly higher temperature, but were still cooled by solid hydrogen in the inner cryogen tank.
The Known Solar System Object Possible Associations List is a compendium of asteroids and comets, with orbits known at the time of WISE second-pass data processing, that were predicted to be within the field-of-view at the time of individual WISE exposures. Individual objects were observed multiple times, so may have multiple entries in the list. When the predicted position of a solar system object is in proximity to a detection in the WISE single-exposures, the WISE source position and brightness information are also provided.
WISE 3-Band Cryo Single Exposure (L1b) Frame Metadata Table
Short Name:
WISE 3-Band FMT
Date:
01 Oct 2018 20:27:16
Publisher:
NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive
Description:
The WISE 3-Band Cryo Data Release products are comprised of data taken during the mission's 3-Band Cryo survey phase. This phase covers the time following the exhaustion of solid hydrogen in the WISE payload outer cryogen tank, while the detectors and telescope were still cooled by the inner cryogen tank. During this time, WISE's W1, W2 and W3 bands were operational and continued to acquire useful data, but the W4 detector was saturated by thermal emission from the warming telescope. The sensitivity achieved in the W1 and W2 bands was similar to that during the full cryogenic mission phase. The W3 measurement sensitivity was degraded and decreased steadily during the 3-Band Cryo phase because of the increasing telescope temperature and decreasing exposure times. WISE scanned approximately 30% of the sky during the 3-Band Cryo survey phase continuing with the same strategy that was used during the full cryogenic survey.
The following table contains brief descriptions of all metadata information that is relevant to the processing of Single-exposure (level 1) images and the extraction of sources from the corresponding Single-exposure images. The table contains the unique scan ID for a specific scan frame and the reconstructed right ascension and declination of the level 1b frame center. Much of the information in this table is processing-specific, and may not be of interest to general users (e.g. flags indicating whether frames have been processed or not, and the date and time for starting of the pipeline, etc.). The metadata table also contains some characterization and derived statistics of the Single-expsoure image frames, basic photometric parameters used for photometry and derived statistics for extracted sources and artifacts. For example, it contains median pixel values of the coadded sky coverage map, the number of sources with profile-fit photometry Signal-to-Noise (SNR) greater than 3, and the total number of real sources affected by artifacts such as electronic ghosts, etc.
WISE 3-Band Cryo Single Exposure (L1b) Source Table
Short Name:
WISE 3-Band ST
Date:
01 Oct 2018 20:27:16
Publisher:
NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive
Description:
The WISE 3-Band Cryo Single Exposure (L1b) Source Table contains positions and photometry in the 3.4, 4.6 and 12 μm bands for 3,703,319,374 sources extracted from observations made during the WISE 3-Band Cryo survey phase, 6 August 2010 through 29 September 2010. WISE scanned approximately 30% of the sky during this period when the telescope and focal planes operated at a slightly higher temperature, but were still cooled by solid hydrogen in the inner cryogen tank.
The WISE 3-Band Cryo Source Working Database (WDB) contains positions and photometry in the 3.4, 4.6 and 12 μm bands for 261,418,479 sources extracted from observations made during the WISE 3-Band Cryo survey phase, 6 August 2010 through 29 September 2010. WISE scanned approximately 30% of the sky during this period when the telescope and focal planes operated at a slightly higher temperature, but were still cooled by solid hydrogen in the inner cryogen tank.
CAUTION: The 3-Band Cryo Source WDB is not a well-vetted, reliable list of infrared sources like the WISE All-Sky Release Source Catalog. The WDB contains both detections of real astronomical objects, as well as spurious detections of image artifacts, noise excursions, transient events such as cosmic rays, satellite trails and hot pixels. The WDB also contains redundant extractions of objects that fall in the overlap region between the 3-Band Cryo Atlas Tiles.
The WISE 3-Band Cryo Source WDB is best used as a resource to learn more about objects that are found in the All-Sky Release Source Catalog. The 3-Band Cryo observations offer a second, independent epoch of measurement for objects in 30% of the sky, so can be used to test for object motion, flux variability and reliability in the case of very faint sources. 3-Band Cryo WDB entries have been cross-correlated with the All-Sky Catalog and associated Catalog source information is provided in the 3-Band Cryo WDB records.
This table contains a catalog of radio-loud candidate gamma-ray emitting blazars with WISE mid-infrared colors similar to the colors of confirmed gamma-ray blazars. The catalog is assembled from WISE sources detected in all four WISE filters, with colors that are compatible with the three-dimensional locus of the WISE gamma-ray emitting blazars, and which can be spatially cross-matched with radio sources from one of the three radio surveys: NVSS, FIRST, and/or SUMSS. The authors' initial WISE selection uses a slightly modified version of previously successful algorithms. They then select only the radio-loud sources using a measure of the radio-to-IR flux, the q<sub>22</sub> parameter, which is analogous to the q<sub>24</sub> parameter known in the literature but which instead uses the WISE band-four flux at 22 micron (µm). Their final catalog contains 7,855 sources classified as BL Lacs, FSRQs, or mixed candidate blazars; 1,295 of these sources can be spatially re-associated as confirmed blazars. In their paper, the authors describe the properties of the final catalog of WISE blazar-like radio-loud sources and consider possible contaminants. Finally, they discuss why this large catalog of candidate gamma-ray emitting blazars represents a new and useful resource to address the problem of finding low-energy counterparts to currently unidentified high-energy sources. The WISE magnitudes in the [3.4], [4.6], [12] and [22] um nominal filters are in the Vega system. The values of three WISE magnitudes, namely [3.4], [4.6], and [12], and of the colors derived using those magnitudes, have been corrected for galactic extinction according to the extinction law presented by Draine (2003, ARA&A, 41, 241). In their study, the authors adopt the nomenclature proposed in the Multi-wavelength Blazar Catalog (BZCat) that labels BL Lac objects as 'BZBs' and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) as 'BZQs'. This table was created by the HEASARC in December 2014 based on a machine-readable version of Table 4 from the reference paper that was obtained from the ApJS web site. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .
We present a catalog of radio-loud candidate {gamma}-ray emitting blazars with WISE mid-infrared colors similar to the colors of confirmed {gamma}-ray blazars. The catalog is assembled from WISE sources detected in all four WISE filters, with colors compatible with the three-dimensional locus of the WISE {gamma}-ray emitting blazars, and which can be spatially cross-matched with radio sources from one of the three radio surveys: NVSS, FIRST, and/or SUMSS. Our initial WISE selection uses a slightly modified version of previously successful algorithms. We then select only the radio-loud sources using a measure of the radio-to-IR flux, the q_22_parameter, which is analogous to the q_24_ parameter known in the literature but which instead uses the WISE band-four flux at 22{mu}m. Our final catalog contains 7855 sources classified as BL Lacs, FSRQs, or mixed candidate blazars; 1295 of these sources can be spatially re-associated as confirmed blazars. We describe the properties of the final catalog of WISE blazar-like radio-loud sources and consider possible contaminants. Finally, we discuss why this large catalog of candidate {gamma}-ray emitting blazars represents a new and useful resource to address the problem of finding low-energy counterparts to currently unidentified high-energy sources.
