With each data release, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey collaboration has published a Data Release paper, which describes the data, the data acquisition process, and other details of the project. The most current public data release of the SDSS-V is Data Release 20 (DR20), which was released in July 2026. Details of DR20 are described […]
Search Results for: SDSS-IV
Technical Publications
These technical papers describe various aspects of the technical operation of the original Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the SDSS-II’s SEGUE and Supernova surveys, the SDSS-III BOSS, APOGEE, SEGUE-2, and MARVELS surveys, the SDSS-IV eBOSS, APOGEE-2 and MaNGA surveys, and the current SDSS-V mapper programs. This list of papers is sorted by the phase of SDSS […]
DR18 Plates
Plates in the SDSS context are round pieces of aluminum with holes in it to plug the fibers that collect the light from each astrophysical object. For many years in SDSS we have used this plug plates to perform our observations. These plates need to be designed and drilled with a few months in advance […]
DR18 Using Bitmasks
A bit mask uses the bits in the binary representation of an integer as “toggles” to indicate whether certain conditions are met. For a more general introduction to this concept, consult Wikipedia or other online resources on the subject. Within the SDSS, the most common use of a bitmask is to indicate the status of […]
DR18 Bitmasks
SDSS makes heavy use of the concept of a bitmask in spectroscopic target flags and other contexts. For the actual bit values for all SDSS flags, see the lists below. More detailed descriptions of the targeting bitmasks for the completed optical surveys and infrared surveys can be found in the DR17 release documentation. The page […]
DR18 BOSS Pipeline
The SDSS Early Data Release (EDR) paper is the original resource for understanding the processing and data products from the SDSS, describing the pipelines and spectroscopic data products. Successive data release papers: DR1, DR2, DR3, DR4, DR5, DR6, DR7, DR8, DR9, DR10, DR11, DR12, DR13, DR14, DR15, DR16, and DR17 describe changes to the optical spectroscopic data reduction between data releases. The technical summary paper provides more general information on the SDSS-I survey, the SDSS-III summary […]
DR18 Software Pipelines
Data Reduction Pipelines SDSS spectra are generated by running raw data from the SDSS Observatories in the North and South through a series of data reductions, orchestrated by SDSS Pipelines. The following table lists each SDSS Data Reduction Pipeline (DRP), indicating whether it is current in SDSS-V or completed in a previous phase of SDSS: […]
DR18 BHM Science Programs
Summary of BHM Time-Domain Spectral Programs The BHM optical (BOSS) repeat spectral time-domain programs emphasize the astrophysics of quasars, including studies of BH masses, binarity, accretion and events, broad line region (BLR) dynamics, outflows, etc., requiring spectral sampling at a broad range of timescales/cadence, ranging from days to decades; this is achieved via several tiers. […]
DR18 BHM SPIDERS
‘SPectroscopic IDentfication of ERosita Sources’ Summary The SDSS-V SPIDERS project aims to characterize a large sample of X-ray sources through an ambitious program of optical spectroscopic follow up. The SPIDERS project has two main science themes – the follow up of X-ray point-like sources (‘SPIDERS-AGN’), and the follow up of X-ray/optical cluster candidates ( ‘SPIDERS-Clusters’). […]
DR18 BHM Reverberation Mapping
Summary The SDSS-V/BHM Reverberation Mapping (RM) project seeks to measure the time lag of broad emission line response to continuum variability, and hence virial BH mass estimates, aiming for a large and uniformly selected sample of quasars across a wide range of luminosities and redshifts. The target sample is overall a flux-limited one without other […]