Methods for rapidly processing angular masks of next-generation galaxy surveys     

M. E. C. Swanson  Max Tegmark  rew J. S. Hamilton  J. Colin Hill 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2008,387(4):1391-1402

As galaxy surveys become larger and more complex, keeping track of the completeness, magnitude limit and other survey parameters as a function of direction on the sky becomes an increasingly challenging computational task. For example, typical angular masks of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey contain about   N = 300 000  distinct spherical polygons. Managing masks with such large numbers of polygons becomes intractably slow, particularly for tasks that run in time     with a naive algorithm, such as finding which polygons overlap each other. Here we present a 'divide-and-conquer' solution to this challenge: we first split the angular mask into pre-defined regions called 'pixels', such that each polygon is in only one pixel, and then perform further computations, such as checking for overlap, on the polygons within each pixel separately. This reduces     tasks to     , and also reduces the important task of determining in which polygon(s) a point on the sky lies from     to     , resulting in significant computational speedup. Additionally, we present a method to efficiently convert any angular mask to and from the popular healpix format. This method can be generically applied to convert to and from any desired spherical pixelization. We have implemented these techniques in a new version of the mangle software package, which is freely available at http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/mangle/ , along with complete documentation and example applications. These new methods should prove quite useful to the astronomical community, and since mangle is a generic tool for managing angular masks on a sphere, it has the potential to benefit terrestrial mapmaking applications as well.  相似文献   

A Catalogue of previously unstudied Berkeley clusters     

A. L. Tadross 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2008,389(1):285-291

The main astrophysical parameters of 24 previously unstudied open clusters of Berkeley catalogue are presented here. JHK near-infrared (Two Micron All Sky Survey) photometry and the proper motions astrometry of Naval Observatory Merged Astrometric Dataset (NOMAD) are used. The clusters' centres, angular diameters, ages, distances and colour excesses for these clusters are estimated for the first time.  相似文献   

The intrinsic fraction of broad-absorption line quasars     

Christian Knigge  Simone Scaringi  Michael R. Goad  Christopher E. Cottis 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2008,386(3):1426-1435

We carefully reconsider the problem of classifying broad-absorption line quasars (BALQSOs) and derive a new, unbiased estimate of the intrinsic BALQSO fraction from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR3 quasi-stellar object (QSO) catalogue. We first show that the distribution of objects selected by the so-called 'absorption index' (AI) is clearly bimodal in log AI, with only one mode corresponding to definite BALQSOs. The surprisingly high BALQSO fractions that have recently been inferred from AI-based samples are therefore likely to be overestimated. We then present two new approaches to the classification problem that are designed to be more robust than the AI, but also more complete than the traditional 'balnicity index' (BI). Both approaches yield observed BALQSO fractions around 13.5 per cent, while a conservative third approach suggests an upper limit of 18.3 per cent. Finally, we discuss the selection biases that affect our observed BALQSO fraction. After correcting for these biases, we arrive at our final estimate of the intrinsic BALQSO fraction. This is   f _BALQSO= 0.17 ± 0.01 (stat) ± 0.03 (sys)  with an upper limit of   f _BALQSO≃ 0.23  . We conclude by pointing out that the bimodality of the log AI distribution may be evidence that the BAL-forming region has clearly delineated physical boundaries.  相似文献   

Assessment of heavy metal impact on sediment quality of the Xiaoqinghe estuary in the coastal Laizhou Bay,Bohai Sea: Inconsistency between two commonly used criteria     

Wen Zhuang  Xuelu Gao 《Marine pollution bulletin》2014

Surface sediments in the Xiaoqinghe estuary, southwestern coastal Laizhou Bay, were examined to assess the bio-toxic risk of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) with the effects range-low and effects range-median guidelines (ERL–ERMs) and the concentration ratio of simultaneously extractable metals to acid volatile sulfides ([SEM]/[AVS]). Based on the ERL–ERM guidelines, bio-toxic effect caused by Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn could be expected in the riverine surface sediments of the Xiaoqinghe estuary; and the surface sediments in the marine area were in good quality and only Ni might cause bio-toxic effect occasionally. The AVS–SEM guidelines revealed that no bio-toxic effect could be caused by any of the studied metals in both the riverine and marine sediments, since there were excess sulfides in surface sediments which could form water-insoluble substances with free metal ions and reduce the bioavailability of heavy metals.  相似文献   

An evaluation of beached bird monitoring approaches     

Seys J  Offringa H  Van Waeyenberge J  Meire P  Kuijken E 《Marine pollution bulletin》2002,44(4):322-333

Oil-pollution monitoring at sea through beach bird surveying would undoubtedly benefit from a further standardisation of methods, enhancing the efficiency of data collection. In order to come up with useful recommendations, we evaluated various approaches of beached bird collection at the Belgian coast during seven winters (1993-1999). Data received in a passive way by one major rehabilitation centre were compared to the results of targeted beach surveys carried out at different scales by trained ornithologists: 'weekly' surveys - with a mean interval of 9 days - restricted to a fixed 16.7 km beach stretch, 'monthly' surveys over the entire coastline (62.1 km) and an annual 'international' survey in Belgium over the same distance at the end of February. Data collected through Belgian rehabilitation centres concern injured, living birds collected in a non-systematical way. Oil rates derived from these centres appear to be strongly biased to oiled auks and inshore bird species, and are hence of little use in assessing the extent of oil pollution at sea. The major asset of rehabilitation centres in terms of data collection seems to be their continuous warning function for events of mass mortality. Weekly surveys on a representative and large enough section rendered reliable data on oil rates, estimates of total number of bird victims, representation of various taxonomic groups and species-richness and were most sensitive in detecting events quickly (wrecks, oil-slicks, severe winter mortality, etc.). Monthly surveys gave comparable results, although they overlooked some important beaching events and demonstrated slightly higher oil rates, probably due to the higher chance to miss short-lasting wrecks of auks. Since the monthly surveys in Belgium were carried out by a network of volunteers and were spread over a larger beach section, they should be considered as best performing. Single 'international beached bird surveys' in February gave reliable data on total victim number (once the mean ratio between numbers in various months is known) and oil rate (provided a sufficiently large sample can be collected), but failed in tracking events. It is a particularly attractive approach because of its long tradition, resulting in invaluable long-term databases, and the uniformity in which these surveys are organised on a large scale. The minimal distance for a monthly survey amounts to 25-30 km (40-50% of Belgian coastline) up to 40 km (65%) in order to attain sound figures for oil rate and species-richness, respectively. These distances are primarily determined by the number of bird corpses that may be collected and are hence a function of beaching intensity and corpse detection rate.  相似文献   

A deep survey of brown dwarfs in Orion with Gemini     

P. W. Lucas  P. F. Roche  M. Tamura 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,361(1):211-232

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The SCUBA Half Degree Extragalactic Survey – IV. Radio–mm–FIR photometric redshifts     

Itziar Aretxaga  David H. Hughes  Kristen Coppin  Angela M. J. Mortier  Jeff Wagg  James S. Dunlop  Edward L. Chapin  Stephen A. Eales  Enrique Gaztañaga  Mark Halpern  Rob J. Ivison  Eelco van Kampen  Douglas Scott  Stephen Serjeant  Ian Smail  Thomas Babbedge  rew J. Benson  Scott Chapman  David L. Clements  Loretta Dunne  Simon Dye  Duncan Farrah  Matt J. Jarvis  Robert G. Mann  Alexandra Pope  Robert Priddey  Steve Rawlings  Marc Seigar  Laura Silva  Chris Simpson  Mattia Vaccari 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2007,379(4):1571-1588

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A small-area faint KX redshift survey for QSOs in the ESO Imaging Survey Chandra Deep Field South     

Scott M. Croom  S.J. Warren  K. Glazebrook 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2001,328(1):150-158

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A search for distant radio-loud quasars in the CLASS survey: three new radio-selected quasars at z > 4     

I.A.G. Snellen  R.G. McMahon  J. Dennett-Thorpe  N. Jackson  K.-H. Mack  E. Xanthopoulos 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2001,325(3):1167-1172

We report on the search for distant radio-loud quasars in the Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey (CLASS) of flat spectrum radio sources with S _5GHz>30 mJy . Unresolved optical counterparts were selected from APM scans of POSS-I plates, with e <19.0 and red o − e >2.0 colours, in an effective area of ∼6400 deg². Four sources were found to be quasars with z >4 , of which one was previously known. This sample bridges the gap between the strong radio surveys with S _5GHz>200 mJy and the samples of radio-weak quasars that can be generated via radio observations of optically selected quasars. In addition, four new quasars at z >3 have been found. The selection criteria result in a success-rate of ∼1:7 for radio-loud quasars at z >4 , which is a significant improvement over previous studies. This search yields a surface density of 1 per 1600 deg², which is about a factor of ∼15 lower than that found in a similar search for radio-quiet quasars at z >4 . The study presented here is strongly biased against quasars beyond z >4.5 , since the e -passband of the POSS-I only samples the spectra shortward of 1200 Å at these redshifts.  相似文献   

The SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey – II. Image detection, parametrization, classification and photometry     

N.C. Hambly  M.J. Irwin  H.T. MacGillivray 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2001,326(4):1295-1314

In this, the second in a series of three papers concerning the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey, we describe the methods for image detection, parametrization, classification and photometry. We demonstrate the internal and external accuracy of our object parameters. Using examples from the first release of data, the South Galactic Cap survey, we show that our image detection completeness is close to 100 per cent to within ∼1.5 mag of the nominal plate limits. We show that for the B _J survey data, the image classification is externally > 99 per cent reliable to B _J∼19.5 . Internally, the image classification is reliable at a level of > 90 per cent to B _J∼21 , R ∼19 . The photometric accuracy of our data is typically ∼0.3 mag with respect to external data for m >15 . Internally, the relative photometric accuracy in restricted position and magnitude ranges can be as accurate as ∼5 per cent for well-exposed stellar images. Colours are externally accurate to σ _{B − R , R − I} ∼0.07 at B _J∼16.5 , rising to σ _{B − R , R − I} ∼0.16 at B _J∼20 .  相似文献