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Pipeline
calib recipes
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XSHOOTER: Calibration recipes
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DETMON

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = BIAS,DETCHECK, FLAT,LINEARITY,DETCHAR

Purpose

The detmon recipes for detector monitoring is a generic pipeline recipe to standardize the monitoring of science detectors of VLT optical and near infrared detectors. It is a technical calibration; products are not used for the processing of science data.

For the UVB-arm and VIS arm, equipped with optical CCDs, five bias frames and a set of imaging flat pairs with increasing exposure time are acquired to cover the dynamic range of the detectors.
For the NIR-arm a set of Echelle flat pairs and off-lamp pairs with increasing exposure time are taken for the same purpose.

Recipe

The detmon recipes detmon_opt and detmon_nir determine the deviation from linearity at a configurable reference count level and used the photon transfer curve to retrieve the gain in a very accurate way.

QC checks

The recipe measures, non-linearity and gain.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comment
DET_LIN_INFO_<arm> PLIL fits table with counts per exposure time
DET_GAIN_INFO_<arm> PGIL fits table with noise per exposure time
COEFFS_CUBE_<arm> PCCL fits cube each plane of the cube contains the polynomial coefficient resolved per pixel


BIAS
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = BIAS

Purpose

Bias frames are measured to monitor the status of the CCD. They come in stacks of 5 raw frames. They are routinely measured every night when XSHOOTER is operational, in the read modes "low gain" and "high gain" and different binning. They are processed by the pipeline into a MASTER_BIAS. They are scored and quality-checked by QC Garching.

Recipe

The pipeline recipe xsh_mbias processes XSHOOTER UVB-arm and VIS-arm BIAS frames. These are combined and median-stacked.

QC checks

The pipeline measures median values, read noise and global structure in the master BIAS and in the first raw frame.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comment
MASTER_BIAS MBIA 2D like the raw frame, with pre and overscan truncated to be subtracted from raw frames


DARK
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = DARK

Purpose

Dark frames are measured to monitor the status of the VIS-arm and UVB-arm optical CCDs and the NIR-arm detector. They come in stacks of 3 raw frames in the optical, each with 3600 sec integration time. They are taken about monthly.
For the NIR-arm they come with different DIT values, matching the DIT used bty the science observations. They are processed into MASTER_DARK frames and are quality-checked by QC Garching.

Recipe

The pipeline recipe xsh_mdark processes XSHOOTER DARK frames. These are combined and median-stacked.

QC checks

The pipeline recipe xsh_dark measures median values and dark current in the master DARK frame.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
MASTER_DARK MDRK 2D applied in the NIR-arm, stare mode only


FMTCHK
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = LAMP,FMTCHK, DPR.TECH=ECHELLE,PINHOLE

Purpose

Format check frames are taken regularly (every ~3 days) together with the order definition and the wave/distortion calibration. The 1-pinhole arc line Echelle spectrum is used to determine an initial guess of the Echelle spectrum format.

Recipe

The recipe xsh_predict uses the arc line spectrum, the physical model and a subset of arc lines to fit the physical model to the arc line spectrum.

QC checks

The number of found arc lines, the maximum gaps between arc lines and the number of found orders is checked for. Furthermore each arc line has an residual in x and y from the best model fit. The residual extrema are monitored.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
ORDER_TAB_GUESS_<arm> POGF table first guess of orders
XSH_MOD_CFG_OPT_FMT_<arm> PMCF table optimized physical model configuration table


ORDER
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = LAMP,ORDERDEF, DPR.TECH=ECHELLE,PINHOLE

Purpose

Order defintion frames are taken regularly (every ~3 days) together with the format check and the wave/distortion calibration. The 1-pinhole flat lamp Echelle spectrum is used to determine the position of the orders

Recipe

The recipe xsh_orderdef uses the flat lamp spectrum and the physical model to fit the physical model.

QC checks

The number of found orders is monitored

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
ORDER_TAB_CENTR_<arm> POCO table tracing the order centers


WAVE
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = LAMP,WAVE, DPR.TECH=ECHELLE,MULTI-PINHOLE

Purpose

The 9-pinhole arc frames are taken regularly (every ~3 days) together with the format check and the order defintion calibration. The 9-pinhole arc line Echelle spectrum is used to determine the 2D transformation from the Echelle spectrum (with tilted arc lines !) into a cartesian grid.

Recipe

The recipe xsh_2dmap uses the 9-pinhole arc line spectrum, the physical model and arc lines from a catalogue to fit the physical model.

QC checks

The number of found arc lines, and the number of found orders is monitored. Furthermore each arc line has an residual in x and y from the best model fit. The residual extrema are monitored.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
DISP_TAB_<arm> PDT2 table dispersion table
XSH_MOD_CFG_OPT_2D_<arm> PMC2 table optimized physical model configuration


FLAT
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = LAMP,FLAT, DPR.TECH=ECHELLE,SLIT or ECHELLE,IFU

Purpose

The SLIT and FU flat fields are used to correct the Echelle blaze and the fixed pattern noise as instrumental effects in science spectra and standard star spectra.

Recipe

The pipeline recipe xsh_mflat corrects for the inter order background. Saturated pixel are excluded in the stacking routine.

QC checks

The lamp flux itself and the counts in the flat frames is checked for, Furthermore the flux stability within the five raw flats and the gradient of the slit function. For technical IFU flats, the relative slice illumination is monitored, to draw conclusions on the position of the atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC) optical elements and the impact of the ambient temperature and humidity on the Echelle optics.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
ORDER_TAB_EDGES_SLIT_<arm> or
ORDER_TAB_EDGES_IFU_<arm>
POES or
POEI
table tracing edges of master flat
MASTER_FLAT_SLIT_<arm> or
MASTER_FLAT_IFU_<arm>
MFSL or
MFIF
2D image the master flat
MASTER_BP_MAP_FLAT_<arm> MBPF 2D image bad pixel map


ARC
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = LAMP,WAVE, DPR.TECH=ECHELLE,IFU, ECHELLE,SLIT

Purpose

The spectral resolution cannot retrieved from the 9-pinhole arc calibrations. Either the sky lines embedded in the science frames have to be used (There is only one sky line in the UVB arm and in the red part of the NIR-arm. the brightness of the sky lines depends on the exposure time, which tuned for the science spectrum) or arc lamp spectra with the same SLIT (or IFU) as the science spectra has to be used. The latter is used here.

Recipe

The recipe xsh_wavecal fits the physical model to the arc line (SLIT (or IFU) spectrum and retrieves in addition the spectral resolution.

QC checks

The spectral resolution and the number of found arc lines is monitored. Furthermore the difference between the 9-pinhole physical model fit and the SLIT (or IFU) physical model fit is monitored.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
SHIFT_TAB_SLIT_<arm> or
SHIFT_TAB_IFU_<arm>
PSTS or
PSTI
table wavelength shift with respect to the 2dmap


FLEX
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = LAMP,AFC, DPR.TECH=ECHELLE

Purpose

The spectra of any night time exposure acquired at different telescope pointings and rotator angles are affect by different mechanical flexure, while day-time calibrations are always taken in the calibration position of the telescope and the instrument. To align these differences in a first order (shifts of the Echelle format), a short exposure 1-pinhole arc line spectrum is acquired as part of the acquisition template.

Recipe

The pipeline recipe xsh_flexcomp uses a small subset of arc lines and fits the physical model of the AFC frames to determine a shift with subpixel variance which is applied to the science exposure to align the spectral format to that of the day-time calibrations to optimize the wavelength solution.

QC checks

The offset values are stored but not monitored. The offsets are more a property of the individual science exposure and not an instrument quality.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
XSH_MOD_CFG_OPT_AFC_<arm> PMCA table flexure corrected model configuration
DISP_TAB_AFC_<arm> PDTA table flexure corrected dispersion table
ORDER_TAB_AFC_SLIT_<arm> POTA table flexure corrected slit traces


FLUX.STD
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = STD,FLUX, STD,SKY , DPR.TECH=ECHELLE,SLIT|IFU,STARE|NOD

Purpose

The XSHOOTER calibration plan knows six individual spectrophotometric standard stars to be used to derive the efficiency of the instrument and the response function. The efficiency is a technical calibration to measure the throughput per wavelength and the response function is used to flux calibrate science spectra and telluric standard stars.

Recipe

In SLIT mode the recipe xsh_respon_slit_nod processes in a first step the star in the same way as a science spectrum. In a second step, the spectrum of model spectrum of the star is aligned to observed spectrum of the spectrophotometric standard star. The scaling function is the response function.
For IFU data the final result is a 3D cube product, for each slice one 2D spectrum.

QC checks

The efficiency at a certain refrence wavelength is trended. The spectral gradient of the response function is monitored.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
RESPONSE_MERGE1D_SLIT_<arm> PRMF table response function, all orders merged into one spectrum
FLUX_SLIT_MERGE1D_<arm> PM1F table flux std in slit mode, all orders merged into one spectrum
FLUX_IFU_MERGE3D_DATA_OBJ_<arm> PM3F image cube each optical slice is a vertical plane in the cube
FLUX_IFU_MERGE3D_DATA_SKY_<arm> PS3F image cube each optical slice is a vertical plane in the cube


TELL.STD
DETMON | BIAS | DARK | FMTCHK | ORDER | WAVE | FLAT | ARC | FLEX | FLUX.STD | TELL.STD

DPR.CATG = CALIB, DPR.TYPE = STD,TELLURIC, DPR.TECH=ECHELLE,SLIT|IFU,NOD|STARE

Purpose

Science spectra from ground-based telescopes contain signatures of the earth atmosphere, the so-called telluric absorption lines. The VIS-arm and the NIR-arm are affected, while the contribution of the earth atmosphere in the UVB-arm wavelength range is negligible. For this reason brigh and fast rotating B-type stars with a flat continuum as 'screen' for the telluric features or solar analogs (G-Type stars) are acquired.

Recipe

The pipeline recipe xsh_scired_slit_nod processes the telluric standard stars in the same way as science spectra. The resulting 1D spectrum can be used to disentangle the telluric features from the stellar features to construct the telluric spectru.

QC checks

No Checks.

Products

product category
(HIERARCH ESO PRO CATG)
product code format comments
TELL_SLIT_MERGE1D_<arm> PM1T table all orders merged in one spectrum
TELL_SLIT_FLUX_MERGE1D_<arm> PF1T table and flux calibrated


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