South Galactic Cap U-band Sky Research Articles

Tomographic analyses of the CMB lensing and galaxy clustering to probe the linear structure growth

In a tomographic approach, we measure the cross-correlation between the CMB lensing reconstructed from the Planck satellite and the galaxies of the photometric redshift catalogue based on the combination of the South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data. We perform the analyses considering six redshift bins spanning the range of 0.1 <z<0.7. From the estimates of the galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-CMB lensing power spectrum, we derive the galaxy bias and the amplitude of the cross-correlation for each redshift bin. We have finally applied these tomographic measurements to estimate the linear structure growth using the bias-independent D̂G estimator introduced by [1]. We find that the amplitude of the structure growth with respect to the fiducial cosmology is AD=1.16±0.13, closely consistent with the predictions of the ΛCDM model (ADΛ CDM=1). We perform several tests for consistency of our results, finding no significant evidence for systematic effects.

A Photometric Redshift Catalog Based on SCUSS, SDSS, and WISE Surveys

Abstract We publish a photometric redshift catalog based on imaging data of the South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. A total of seven photometric bands are used, ranging from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared. A local linear regression method is adopted to estimate the photometric redshift with a dedicated spectroscopic training set. The photometric redshift catalog contains about 23.1 million galaxies classified by SDSS. Using the training set with redshift up to 0.8 and r-band magnitude down to 22 mag, we achieve an average bias of , a standard deviation of σ(Δz norm) = 0.019, and a 3σ outlier rate of about 4.2%. The bias is less than 0.01 at z &lt; 0.6 and goes up to about 0.05 at z ∼ 0.8. Compared with SDSS photometric redshifts, our redshift estimations are more accurate and have less bias.

The Stellar Metallicity Distribution of the Galactic Halo Based on SCUSS and SDSS Data

Abstract Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS), we simulate the photometric metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) of stars in the Galactic halo. The photometric metallicity of stars was estimated by a new Monte-Carlo method. Due to the use of a more reliable metallicity calibration method and more accurate u-band deep measurements from SCUSS, we can obtain more accurate MDFs of a large sample of distant stars in the Galactic halo. In this study, we select 78,092 F/G main-sequence turnoff stars (MSTO) in the south Galactic cap, with 0.2 &lt; (g − r)0 &lt; 0.4, as tracers of the stellar MDFs in the Galactic halo. The sample stars are divided into two height intervals above the Galactic plane: −8 &lt; z &lt; −4 kpc and −12 &lt; z &lt; −8 kpc. The MDFs of selected stars in each interval are well fit by a three-Gaussian model, with peaks at [Fe/H] ≈ −0.63, −1.45, and −2.0. The two metal-poor components correspond to the inner halo and outer halo, respectively. The fraction of the metal-rich component, which may be contributed by the substructure (such as Sagittarius stream or other streams) is about 10%. With limited kinematic estimation, we find the correlations between metallicity and kinematics. Our results provide additional supporting evidence of duality of the Galactic halo.

GALACTIC EXTINCTION AND REDDENING FROM THE SOUTH GALACTIC CAP u-BAND SKY SURVEY: u-BAND GALAXY NUMBER COUNTS AND u − r COLOR DISTRIBUTION

ABSTRACT We study the integral Galactic extinction and reddening based on the galaxy catalog of the South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS), where u-band galaxy number counts and u − r color distribution are used to derive the Galactic extinction and reddening respectively. We compare these independent statistical measurements with the reddening map of Schlegel et al. (SFD) and find that both the extinction and reddening from the number counts and color distribution are in good agreement with the SFD results at low extinction regions ( mag). However, for high extinction regions ( mag), the SFD map overestimates the Galactic reddening systematically, which can be approximated by a linear relation ]. By combining the results from galaxy number counts and color distribution, we find that the shape of the Galactic extinction curve is in good agreement with the standard R V = 3.1 extinction law of O’Donnell.

The SDSS-IV eBOSS: emission line galaxy catalogues atz≈ 0.8 and study of systematic errors in the angular clustering

We present two wide-field catalogs of photometrically-selected emission line galaxies (ELGs) at z=0.8 covering about 2800 deg^2 over the south galactic cap. The catalogs were obtained using a Fisher discriminant technique described in a companion paper. The two catalogs differ by the imaging used to define the Fisher discriminant: the first catalog includes imaging from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, the second also includes information from the South Galactic Cap U-band Sky Survey (SCUSS). Containing respectively 560,045 and 615,601 objects, they represent the largest ELG catalogs available today and were designed for the ELG programme of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). We study potential sources of systematic variation in the angular distribution of the selected ELGs due to fluctuations of the observational parameters. We model the influence of the observational parameters using a multivariate regression and implement a weighting scheme that allows effective removal of all of the systematic errors induced by the observational parameters. We show that fluctuations in the imaging zero-points of the photometric bands have minor impact on the angular distribution of objects in our catalogs. We compute the angular clustering of both catalogs and show that our weighting procedure effectively removes spurious clustering on large scales. We fit a model to the small scale angular clustering, showing that the selections have similar biases of 1.35/D_a(z) and 1.28/D_a(z). Both catalogs are publicly available.

South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS): Project Overview

The South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) was established in 2009 in order to provide a photometric input catalog for target selection of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) project. SCUSS is an international cooperative project between National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, using the 90 inch (2.3m) Bok telescope on Kitt Peak. The telescope is equipped with a prime focus camera that is composed of a mosaic of four 4096 × 4096 CCDs and has a field of view of about 1 deg2. From 2009 to 2013, SCUSS performed a sky survey of an approximately 5000 deg2 field of the South Galactic Cap in u band, including the Galactic anticenter area and the SDSS-IV extended imaging area. The limiting magnitude of SCUSS is deeper than 23 mag (at a signal-to-noise ratio of 5). In this paper, we briefly describe the goals of this project, method of observations and data reduction, and we also introduce current and potential scientific activities related to the SCUSS project.

SOUTH GALACTIC CAP u-BAND SKY SURVEY (SCUSS): DATA RELEASE

ABSTRACT The South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) is a deep u-band imaging survey in the south Galactic cap using the 2.3 m Bok telescope. The survey observations were completed at the end of 2013, covering an area of about 5000 square degrees. We release the data in the region with an area of about 4000 deg2 that is mostly covered by the Sloan digital sky survey. The data products contain calibrated single-epoch images, stacked images, photometric catalogs, and a catalog of star proper motions derived by Peng et al. The median seeing and magnitude limit (5σ) are about 2.″0 and 23.2 mag, respectively. There are about 8 million objects having measurements of absolute proper motions. All the data and related documentations can be accessed through the SCUSS data release website http://batc.bao.ac.cn/Uband/data.html.

SOUTH GALACTIC CAPu-BAND SKY SURVEY (SCUSS): DATA REDUCTION

The South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) is a deep u-band imaging survey in the Southern Galactic Cap, using the 90Prime wide-field imager on the 2.3m Bok telescope at Kitt Peak. The survey observations started in 2010 and ended in 2013. The final survey area is about 5000 deg2 with a median 5-sigma point source limiting magnitude of about 23.2. This paper describes the survey data reduction process, which includes basic imaging processing, astrometric and photometric calibrations, image stacking, and photometric measurements. Survey photometry is performed on objects detected both on SCUSS u-band images and in the SDSS database. Automatic, aperture, point-spread function (PSF), and model magnitudes are measured on stacked images. Co-added aperture, PSF, and model magnitudes are derived from measurements on single-epoch images. We also present comparisons of the SCUSS photometric catalog with those of the SDSS and CFHTLS.

Photometric Metallicity of the Sagittarius Stream in the south Galactic cap

AbstractBased on SDSS and South Galactic Cap U-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) photometry, we try to study the photometric metallicity of the Sagittarius (Sgr) stream in the south Galactic cap. We find that the Sgr stream has a wider metallicity distribution, and that its median metallicity is richer than that of the field halo stars. The neighboring field halo stars in our studied fields can be modeled by a two-Gaussian model, with peaks at [Fe/H]= −1.9 and [Fe/H]= −1.5. The metallicity distribution function (MDF) of the mixed population (Sgr stream and halo stars) has peaks at [Fe/H]= −1.9, [Fe/H]= −1.5 and [Fe/H]= −0.5, respectively.

An Investigation of the Absolute Proper Motions of the SCUSS Catalog

Absolute proper motions for ∼7.7 million objects were derived based on data from the South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) and astrometric data derived from uncompressed Digitized Sky Surveys that the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) created from the Palomar and UK Schmidt survey plates. We put a great deal of effort into correcting the position-, magnitude-, and color-dependent systematic errors in the derived absolute proper motions. The spectroscopically confirmed quasars were used to test the internal systematic and random error of the proper motions. The systematic errors of the overall proper motions in the SCUSS catalog are estimated as -0.08 and -0.06 mas/yr for μα cos δ and μδ, respectively. The random errors of the proper motions in the SCUSS catalog are estimated independently as 4.2 and 4.4 mas/yr for μα cos δ and μδ. There are no obvious position-, magnitude-, and color-dependent systematic errors of the SCUSS proper motions. The random error of the proper motions goes up with the magnitude from about 3 mas/yr at u = 18.0 mag to about 7 mas/yr at u = 22.0 mag. The proper motions of stars in SCUSS catalog are compared with those in the SDSS catalog, and they are highly consistent.

Capability of Quasar Selection by Combining SCUSS and SDSS Observations

The South Galactic Cap u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) provides a deep u-band imaging of about 5000 deg2 in south Galactic cap. It is about 1.5 mag deeper than the SDSS u-band. In this article, we evaluate the capability of quasar selection using both SCUSS and SDSS data, based on considerations of the deep SCUSS u-band imaging and two-epoch u-band variability. We find that the combination of the SCUSS u-band and the SDSS griz-band allows us to select more faint quasars and more quasars at redshift around 2.2 than the selection that uses only the SDSS ugriz data. Quasars have significant u-band variabilities. The fraction of quasars with large two-epoch variability is much higher than that of stars. The selection by variability can select both low-redshift quasars with ultraviolet excess and mid-redshift (2 < z < 3.5) quasars where quasar selection by optical colors is inefficient. The above two selections are complementary and make full use of the SCUSS u-band advantages.

Estimation of Galactic model parameters in high latitudes with the SDSS and SCUSS

AbstractBased on the South Galactic Cap U-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) and SDSS observation, we adopted the star-count method to analyze the stellar distribution in different directions of the Galaxy. We find that these model parameters may be variable with observed direction, which cannot simply be attributed to statistical errors.

Galactic structure studies with SCUSS and SDSS surveys

AbstractBased on the South Galactic Cap U-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) and SDSS observations, we adopted the star-count method to analyze the stellar distribution in different directions of the Galaxy. We find that the scale height of the disk may be variable with the observed direction, which cannot simply be attributed to statistical errors. The main reason can be possibly attributed to the disk (mainly the thick disk) being flared, with a scale height increasing with radius. The axis ratio of the Galactic halo is in the range 0.4-0.6. This finding supports Galactic models with a flattened inner halo, partly formed through a merger early in the Galaxy's history.