Technical Papers and Additional References

These web pages attempt to describe the key features in APOGEE data, but they must necessarily be somewhat concise. For the most in-depth discussion of the APOGEE survey and data analysis, users should consult the APOGEE technical papers, which include:

The APOGEE-2 Target Selection Paper

(Zasowski et al., in prep) relays the APOGEE-2 Survey field plan and describes in detail the targeting strategy employed for APOGEE-2N and APOGEE-2.

The DR13 and DR14 Pipeline and Data Release Description

(Holtzman et al., in prep) provides extensive detail with regard to DR13- and DR14-related modifications of the data reduction and ASPCAP pipelines. Additionally, evaluates all DRP- and ASPCAP-generated data products (e.g., radial velocity values, stellar atmospheric parameters and individual element abundances).

The DR13 and DR14 ASPCAP Results Comparison

(Jonsson et al., in prep) Relays a comparison of DR13 and DR14 ASPCAP-derived parameters with a variety of large sample, robust, composite abundance analyses from literature.

The APOGEE(-1) Overview Paper

Majewski et al. (submitted) discusses the scientific motivation for the survey, as well as the survey requirements and the choice of survey field placements that are implied. It describes survey operations, summarizes the level to which requirements are met, and references the data releases. It also introduces the follow-on APOGEE-2 survey.

The APOGEE DR12 Data Paper

Holtzman et al. 2015 describes the DR12 release of SDSS-III/APOGEE data. While there are some modifications for DR14, it presents a general discussion of the calibration of the stellar parameters and abundances, and validation of these relative to independent measurements. It also presents the methods by which APOGEE data can be accessed, and discusses some details of the files and databases, including important information to users about what quantities are stored where, uncertainties, and potential issues.

The APOGEE Instrument Paper

(Wilson et al., in prep) discusses the technical details of the instrument itself, and presents some low level instrument performance data.

The APOGEE-1 Target Selection Paper

Zasowski et al. 2013 discusses the target selection for main survey and APOGEE-1 ancillary science projects. An expanded discussion of the Kepler field targeting can be found in Pinsoneault et al. 2014.

The APOGEE Data Reduction Paper

Nidever et al. 2015 discusses the data reduction pipeline, describing how the raw data are analyzed to produce reduced, calibrated spectra. It also presents additional instrument performance data (flats, darks, LSF, persistence, etc.), It also discusses the measurement of radial velocities and their quality.

The APOGEE/ASPCAP paper

Garcia Perez et al. 2016 presents an outline of how the spectra are processed and analyzed to produce stellar parameters and abundances. It demonstrates validation of the overall method using recovery of parameters/abundances from simulated data, and discusses uncertainties that are introduced by real-world issues: S/N, issues related computational efficiency, variation and uncertainty of the LSF, and issues involving the loss of information under sky lines. It presents some basic tests of the methodology from very-high-resolution observations of some well-studied stars (FTS stars).

The (DR10-DR14) APOGEE Line List Paper

Shetrone et al. 2015 presents the details of how the H-band linelists, a critical component for ASPCAP, were developed.

• The APOGEE linelists are tested using high-resolution IR spectra of several well-studied stars in Smith et al. (2013).
• Further tests of the individual elements derived from the ASPCAP pipeline are found in Cunha et al. (2015).

The APOGEE Model Atmospheres Paper

Meszaros et al. 2012 discusses details of the model atmospheres that were used for the final APOGEE-1 analysis, which is included in DR14.

The APOGEE Spectral Grids Paper

Zamora et al. 2015 presents how the spectral synthesis was done, documents the libraries that have been used, and investigates the sensitivity of the result to the choice of synthesis code and model atmospheres.

The APOGEE DR10 Calibration Paper

Meszaros et al. 2013 discusses calibration of stellar parameters that were released in DR10. It is superseded by the APOGEE DR12 data paper ( Holtzman et al. 2015 ).

Additional technical papers on APOGEE may be forthcoming.