PLANCKE217 - Planck Early Release 217-GHz Compact Source Catalog

Overview

Planck is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with significant contributions from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). It is the third generation of space-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, after the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Planck was launched on 14 May 2009 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Following a cruise to the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, cooling and in-orbit checkout, Planck initiated the First Light Survey on 13 August 2009. Since then, Planck has been continuously measuring the intensity of the sky over a range of frequencies from 30 to 857 GHz (wavelengths of 1 cm to 350 microns) with spatial resolutions ranging from about 33 to 4.2 arcminutes, respectively. The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) on Planck provides temperature and polarization information using radiometers which operate between 30 and 70 GHz. The High Frequency Instrument (HFI) uses pairs of polarization-sensitive bolometers at each of four frequencies between 100 and 353 GHz but does not measure polarization information in the two upper HFI bands at 545 and 857 GHz. The lowest frequencies overlap with the frequencies of WMAP, and the highest frequencies extend far into the submillimeter in order to improve separation between Galactic foregrounds and the CMB. By extending to wavelengths longer than those at which the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) operated, Planck is providing an unprecedented window into dust emission at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths.

The Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) is a list of all high reliability sources, both Galactic and extragalactic, derived from the first sky coverage. The data that went into this early release comprise all observations undertaken between 13 August 2009 and 6 June 2010, corresponding to Planck operational days 91-389. Since the Planck scan strategy results in the entire sky being observed every 6 months, the data considered in this release correspond to more than the first sky coverage. The source lists have reliability goals of > 90% across the entire sky and > 95% at high Galactic latitude. The goals on photometric accuracy are 30% while the positional accuracy goal translates to a positional root mean square (RMS) uncertainty that is less than 1/5 of the beam full width at half maximum (FWHM).

A brief description of the methodology of the construction, contents and usage of the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) is provided in the reference paper. The catalog is based on data that consist of mapping the entire sky once and 60% of the sky a second time by Planck, thereby comprising the first high sensitivity radio/submillimetre observations of the entire sky. Four source detection algorithms were run as part of the ERCSC pipeline. A Monte-Carlo algorithm based on the injection and extraction of artificial sources into the Planck maps was implemented to select reliable sources among all extracted candidates such that the cumulative reliability of the catalogue is >~ 90%. There is no requirement on completeness for the ERCSC. As a result of the Monte-Carlo assessment of reliability of sources from the different techniques, an implementation of the PowellSnakes source extraction technique was used at the five frequencies between 30 and 143 GHz while the SExtractor technique was used between 217 and 857 GHz. The 10-sigma photometric flux density limit of the catalogue at |b| > 30 degrees is 0.49, 1.0, 0.67, 0.5, 0.33, 0.28, 0.25, 0.47 and 0.82 Jy at each of the nine frequencies between 30 and 857 GHz. Sources which are up to a factor of ~2 fainter than this limit, and which are present in "clean" regions of the Galaxy where the sky background due to emission from the interstellar medium is low, are included in the ERCSC if they meet the high reliability criterion. The Planck ERCSC sources have known associations with stars with dust shells, stellar cores, radio galaxies, blazars, infrared luminous galaxies and Galactic interstellar medium features. A significant fraction of unclassified sources are also present in the catalogs. The entire source list, with more than 15,000 unique sources, is ripe for follow-up characterisation with Herschel, ATCA, VLA, SOFIA, ALMA and other ground-based observing facilities.

Detailed explanations about the mission and the catalogs included here can be found in the "Explanatory supplement" (file https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/VIII/88/ercsc4_3.pdf). Skymaps of the sources can be found in the "skymaps" subdirectory at https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/VIII/88/skymaps/ .

This present table contains the ERCSC 217-GHz source catalog. The parameter names as defined in the FITS files containing the source lists which were created by the Planck Project are given in parentheses and in capital letters at the end of the corresponding parameter descriptions below.

Catalog Bibcode

2011A&A...536A...7P

References

Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue
     Planck Collaboration
    <ESA, 2011>
    =2011yCat.8088....0P
Planck Early Results. VII The Early Release Compact Source Catalogue
     Planck Collaboration
    <Astron. Astrophys. 536, A7
    =2011A&A...536A...7P

Provenance

This table was created by the HEASARC in January 2012 based on CDS Catalog VIII/88 file f217.dat.

Parameters

Name
The Planck ERCSC 217-GHz source designation, viz., the prefix 'PLCKERC217' (for Planck Early Release Compact source catalog, 217 GHz) and the Galactic coordinates, e.g., 'PLCKERC217 G118.11+0494'. (NAME).

Flux
The flux density of the radio source at the catalog frequency, in mJy, as computed from aperture photometry centered on the source position. (FLUX).

Flux_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the flux density of the radio source at the catalog frequency, in mJy. (FLUX_ERR).

Cmbsub_Detect_Flag
This flag parameter (CMBSUBTRACT) characterizes the source flux as found in the intensity maps (S) compared to the CMB-subtracted maps (S') as follows (see section 7.3 of the file https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/VIII/88/ercsc4_3.pdf for more details):

      * 0 = |(S-S')/S| < 30%
      * 1 = |(S-S')/S| > 30%
      * 2 = the source is not detected in the CMB subtracted maps.

Extent_Flag
This flag parameter (EXTENDED) characterizes the source as compact (a value of 0) or extended (a value of 1).

Num_Days_Observed
The number of days that the source was observed (NUMOBS).

Error_Radius
The 1-sigma (standard deviation) of the positional offsets for sources with this signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), in arcminutes. (POS_ERR).

RA
The Right Ascension of the source based on the extraction algorithm in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 decimal degree coordinates to a precision of 10^-4 degrees in the original table.

Dec
The Declination of the source based on the extraction algorithm in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 decimal degree coordinates to a precision of 10^-4 degrees in the original table.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the source.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the source.

Beam_Major_Axis
The elliptical Gaussian beam FWHM major axis, in arcminutes. (BEAM_FWHMMAJ).

Beam_Minor_Axis
The elliptical Gaussian beam FWHM minor axis, in arcminutes. (BEAM_FWHMMIN).

Beam_Position_Angle
The orientation of the elliptical Gaussian beam major axis, measured Eastwards of Galactic North, in degrees (BEAM_THETA).

Elongation
The ratio of the major to minor axes of the radio source, a/b. Radio sources with elongations greater than 3 have been omitted from this catalog in order to remove extended sources associated with substructure in the Galactic interstellar medium. (ELONGATION).

Det_Flux
The flux density of the source as determined by the detection method, in milliJanskies (mJy). (FLUXDET).

Det_Flux_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the flux density of the source as determined by the detection method, in mJy. (FLUXDET_ERR).

FIRST_Moment_In_X
The first moment in the X direction, in arcminutes, for the radio source (MX1). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

FIRST_Moment_In_Y
The first moment in the Y direction, in arcminutes, for the radio source (MY1). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

Second_Moment_In_X
The second moment in the X direction, in arcminutes², for the radio source (MX2). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

Cross_Moment_In_X_And_Y
The cross moment in the X and Y directions, in arcminutes², for the radio source (MXY). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

Second_Moment_In_Y
The second moment in the Y direction, in arcminutes², for the radio source (MY2). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

PSF_Flux
The flux density of the source as determined from PSF fitting, in mJy. (PSFFLUX).

PSF_Flux_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the flux density of the source as determined from PSF fitting, in mJy. (PSFFLUX_ERR).

Gauss_Flux
The flux density of the source as determined from 2D Gaussian fitting, in mJy. (GAUFLUX).

Gauss_Flux_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the flux density of the source as determined from 2D Gaussian fitting, in mJy. (GAUFLUX_ERR).

Gauss_Major_Axis
The Gaussian fit FWHM to the radio source along the major axis, in arcminutes. (GAU_FWHMMAX).

Gauss_Minor_Axis
The Gaussian fit FWHM to the radio source along the minor axis, in arcminutes. (GAU_FWHMMIN).

Gauss_Position_Angle
The orientation of the Gaussian fit FWHM major axis, measured Eastwards of Galactic North, in degrees (GAU_THETA).

Reliability
The reliability of the source detection, defined as the fraction of Monte-Carlo (MC) sources that are matched and have photometric errors < 30%. (RELIABILITY).

Reliability_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the reliability of the source based on Poisson statistics. (RELIABILITY_ERR).

MCQA_Flux_Sigma
The standard deviation of photometric error for sources with the same SNR as this source, based on the Monte Carlo quality assessment (MCQA). (MCQA_FLUX_ERR).

MCQA_Flux_Bias
The median photometric error for sources with the same SNR as this source, based on the Monte Carlo quality assessment (MCQA). (MCQA_FLUX_BIAS).

Background_RMS
The background point source RMS obtained from the threshold maps, in mJy, (BACKGROUND_RMS).

Observation_Dates
The UTC dates on which the source was observed, in YYYYMMDD format. (DATESOBS).

Contact Person

Questions regarding the PLANCKE217 database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Friday, 08-Nov-2024 14:52:34 EST