Explanatory Supplement to the NEOWISE Data Release Products
Abstract
The Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Reactivation Mission (NEOWISE) is a NASA Planetary Science Division space-based survey to detect, track and characterize asteroids and comets, and to learn more about the population of near-Earth objects that could pose an impact hazard to the Earth. NEOWISE systematically images the sky at 3.4 and 4.6 microns, obtaining multiple independent observations on each location that enable detection of previously known and new solar system small bodies by virtue of the their motion. NEOWISE detects asteroid thermal emission and is equally sensitive to high and low albedo objects. NEOWISE infrared flux measurements will enable diameters and albedos to be radiometrically determined for thousands of main belt and near-Earth asteroids.
NEOWISE utilizes the Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WISE) spacecraft that surveyed the entire sky in 2010 with a cryogenically cooled 40 cm telescope and four 1kx1k mid-infrared array detectors operating at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns (W1, W2, W3, W4). After the exhaustion of its solid hydrogen cryogen in September 2010, WISE continued to survey for four months using its two short wavelength bands. WISE was placed into hibernation in February 2011 after completing a survey of the inner main asteroid belt and a second coverage of the inertial sky. The WISE spacecraft was brought out of hibernation in September 2013 and renamed NEOWISE for its new mission. Survey operations were resumed on December 13, 2013 UTC with the W1 and W2 detectors operating at sensitivities near those of the original cryogenic survey. The first solar system object tracklets were reported to the IAU Minor Planet Center less than two weeks after the start of the survey. Tracklet deliveries have been made three times per week since that time. Annual releases of the NEOWISE Single-exposure images, extracted source database and ancillary data began in March 2015, and are comprised of the the data from the preceding year's survey observations. The Explanatory Supplement to the NEOWISE Data Release Products is a general guide for users of the NEOWISE data. The Supplement contains an overview of the NEOWISE mission, facilities, and operations, a description of the contents and formats of the NEOWISE image and tabular data products, and cautionary notes that describe known limitations of the Release products. Instructions for accessing the NEOWISE data products via the services of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive are provided. Descriptions of the data processing system and algorithms used to ingest and convert raw NEOWISE images to the calibrated data products are presented, along with assessments of the sky coverage, photometric and astrometric characteristics and completeness and reliability of the NEOWISE Release data products. The NEOWISE Data Release Explanatory Supplement is an on-line document that is updated frequently to provide the most current information for users of the NEOWISE data products. The Explanatory Supplement is maintained at: http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/neowise/expsup/ NEOWISE is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the Planetary Science Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.- Publication:
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Explanatory Supplement to the NEOWISE Data Release Products
- Pub Date:
- March 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015nwis.rept....1C
- Keywords:
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- Infrared Astronomy;
- Infrared Sources;
- Asteroids;
- Near-Earth Objects;
- Comets;
- Catalogs;
- Space Observatories;
- Manuals