Paper
9 July 2018 A predictive optical sky background model for DESI
Parker Fagrelius, David Schlegel
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is under construction to measure the expansion history of the Universe using the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation technique. The spectra of 35 million galaxies and quasars over 14000 sq deg will be measured during the life of the experiment. A new prime focus corrector for the KPNO Mayall telescope will deliver light to 5000 fiber optic positioners. The fibers in turn feed ten broad-band spectrographs. We report progress on a predictive sky background model for DESI, built on the spectra from the 5-year Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This dataset consists of 1 million unique sky spectra covering 360 - 1040 nm collected in a variety of observational conditions. Using a fitted profile of the line spread function from the BOSS spectrograph, we separate the background continuum flux from the airglow lines, allowing us to study the behavior of both distinct emission sources across a large parameter space. Including both dark and bright sky conditions and covering the majority of the 24th solar cycle, our analysis provides new measurements of the inter-line sky continuum. The analysis of this paper is limited to the continuum flux in dark sky conditions at several wavelengths. This improved spectroscopic sky background model can be used in simulations and forecasting for DESI and other surveys.
© (2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Parker Fagrelius and David Schlegel "A predictive optical sky background model for DESI", Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107027D (9 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2311714
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KEYWORDS
Spectrographs

Galactic astronomy

Calibration

Data modeling

Sun

Telescopes

Cameras

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