[Paper Review] The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys

K. C. Chambers, E. A. Magnier+124 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Dec 16, 2016

Stellar, planetary, and galactic studiesPhysics and Astronomy11 references721 citations

TL;DR

This paper provides an overview of the fully implemented Pan-STARRS1 system, its surveys, data products, calibration quality, and legacy science, with public data release through MAST.

ABSTRACT

Pan-STARRS1 has carried out a set of distinct synoptic imaging sky surveys including the $3π$ Steradian Survey and the Medium Deep Survey in 5 bands ($grizy_{P1}$). The mean 5$σ$ point source limiting sensitivities in the stacked 3$π$ Steradian Survey in $grizy_{P1}$ are (23.3, 23.2, 23.1, 22.3, 21.4) respectively. The upper bound on the systematic uncertainty in the photometric calibration across the sky is 7-12 millimag depending on the bandpass. The systematic uncertainty of the astrometric calibration using the Gaia frame comes from a comparison of the results with Gaia: the standard deviation of the mean and median residuals ($ Δra, Δdec $) are (2.3, 1.7) milliarcsec, and (3.1, 4.8) milliarcsec respectively. The Pan-STARRS system and the design of the PS1 surveys are described and an overview of the resulting image and catalog data products and their basic characteristics are described together with a summary of important results. The images, reduced data products, and derived data products from the Pan-STARRS1 surveys are available to the community from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at STScI.

Motivation & Objective

• Describe the Pan-STARRS1 system and its subsystems (telescope, camera, IPP, PSPS, science servers).
• Summarize the conducting surveys and their observing strategies, depth, and cadence.
• Detail the image and catalog data products and their basic characteristics.
• Assess astrometric and photometric calibration quality across the surveys.
• Outline the public data releases and legacy science outputs.

Proposed method

• Describe the Pan-STARRS1 system architecture and flow of information through IPP, PSPS, and MAST (Figure 1).
• Report on survey design, observing strategy, and depth as a function of sky position.
• Summarize data products including images, catalogs, and forced photometry.
• Present calibration results for photometry and astrometry and the 3π survey.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the capabilities and components of the Pan-STARRS1 system and its surveys?
• RQ2 How do the PS1 surveys achieve astrometric and photometric calibration across the sky?
• RQ3 What data products are produced and how are they made public?
• RQ4 What is the scope and content of the 3π Steradian Survey results and legacy science?

Key findings

• Pan-STARRS1 conducted distinct surveys including the 3π Steradian Survey and the Medium Deep Survey in grizyP1 bands.
• Mean 5σ point source limiting sensitivities for the stacked 3π Survey are 23.3, 23.2, 23.1, 22.3, 21.4 in grizyP1 respectively.
• Systematic uncertainty in photometric calibration across the sky is 7-12 millimag depending on bandpass.
• Astrometric calibration using Gaia shows standard deviation of the mean residuals: Δra=2.3 mas, Δdec=1.7 mas; and median residuals: Δra=3.1 mas, Δdec=4.8 mas.
• Data products (images and catalogs) and derived data products are available from MAST at STScI.
• This paper is the overview (Paper I) of a seven-paper series detailing PS1 data processing, calibration, and products.