The Herschel-SPIRE instrument mapped about 9% of the sky in Submillimeter
broad-band filters centered at 250, 350, and 500 microns (1199, 857, 600 GHz)
with spatial resolutions of 17.9", 24.2", 35.4" respectively. In total, we used
the 6878 standard configuration scan maps that are available, including
calibration observations. The SPIRE Point Source Catalog contains the result of
a systematic and homogeneous source extraction on those maps using 4 different
photometry extraction methods. Only regions affected by strong Galactic
emission, mostly in the Galactic Plane, were excluded, as they tested the limits
of the available source extraction methods. Aimed primarily at point sources,
that allow for the best photometric accuracy, the catalog contains also
significant fractions of slightly extended sources up to a limit. With most
SPIRE maps being confusion limited, uncertainties in flux densities were
established as a function of structure noise and flux density, based on the
results of artificial source insertion experiments into real data along a range
of celestial backgrounds. Many sources have been rejected that do not pass the
imposed SNR threshold, especially at flux densities approaching the
extragalactic confusion limit. A range of additional flags provide information
on the reliability of the flux information, as well as the spatial extent and
orientation of a source. Users are encouraged to check the flux density
estimates of all 4 methods and follow the guidelines given in the Explanatory
Supplement regarding their interpretation for point- and extended sources. For
tracing back catalog objects to the originally contributing detections in SPIRE
observations, a cross identification table is available that provides the
relevant observation identifiers used by the Herschel Science Archive.
If you use SPSC, please cite both SPSC Explanatory Supplement
and the dataset Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for:
250 um (10.26131/IRSA45),
350 um (10.26131/IRSA46),
500 um (10.26131/IRSA44),
or Cross-IDs (10.26131/IRSA572).
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SPSC Overview
IRSA Catalog Search Tool: SPSC
