Abstract
Twenty years have passed since first light for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here, we release data taken by the fourth phase of SDSS (SDSS-IV) across its first three years of operation (2014 July–2017 July). This is the third data release for SDSS-IV, and the 15th from SDSS (Data Release Fifteen; DR15). New data come from MaNGA—we release 4824 data cubes, as well as the first stellar spectra in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), the first set of survey-supported analysis products (e.g., stellar and gas kinematics, emission-line and other maps) from the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline, and a new data visualization and access tool we call "Marvin." The next data release, DR16, will include new data from both APOGEE-2 and eBOSS; those surveys release no new data here, but we document updates and corrections to their data processing pipelines. The release is cumulative; it also includes the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since first light. In this paper, we describe the location and format of the data and tools and cite technical references describing how it was obtained and processed. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has also been updated, providing links to data downloads, tutorials, and examples of data use. Although SDSS-IV will continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V (2020–2025), we end this paper by describing plans to ensure the sustainability of the SDSS data archive for many years beyond the collection of data.
Highlights
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York et al 2000) data releases began with the Early Data Release, or EDR, in 2001 June (Stoughton et al 2002) and have been heavily used by astronomers and the broader public since that time (Raddick et al 2014a, 2014b)
DR15 contains new reductions and new data from MaNGA. This release includes the first three years of MaNGA data plus a new suite of derived data products based on the MaNGA data cubes, a new data access tool for MaNGA known as Marvin, and data from a large ancillary program aimed at improving the stellar library available for MaNGA (MaStar; the MaNGA Stellar Library)
As was the case previously in DR14, there are a large number of Value Added Catalogs (VACs) linked to MaNGA data released in DR15
Summary
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York et al 2000) data releases began with the Early Data Release, or EDR, in 2001 June (Stoughton et al 2002) and have been heavily used by astronomers and the broader public since that time (Raddick et al 2014a, 2014b). The data releases contain information about SDSS optical broadband imaging, optical spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy. The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS; Dawson et al 2016) is surveying galaxies and quasars at redshifts z ~ 0.6–3.5 for large- scale structure. DR15 contains new reductions and new data from MaNGA This release includes the first three years of MaNGA data plus a new suite of derived data products based on the MaNGA data cubes, a new data access tool for MaNGA known as Marvin, and data from a large ancillary program aimed at improving the stellar library available for MaNGA (MaStar; the MaNGA Stellar Library). Note. a Many MaNGA ancillary targets were observed as part of the main galaxy sample and are counted twice in this table; some ancillary targets are not galaxies
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