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| Paper: |
First Results From the VISTA Data Flow System and WFCAM |
| Volume: |
351, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XV |
| Page: |
255 |
| Authors: |
Lewis, J.R.; Irwin, M.J.; Gonzalez-Solares, E.A.; Bunclark, P.S.; Hodgkin, S.T.; Evans, D.W.; McMahon, R.G. |
| Abstract: |
The UKIRT Wide Field Camera (WFCAM) on Mauna Kea is a mosaic camera consisting of four Rockwell 2k x 2k IR arrays. It has recently been commissioned and is now producing high quality deep wide area survey data. With a nightly data rate of up to 250 Gb, automated pipeline processing and data management requirements are paramount. Pipeline processing of IR data is far more technically challenging than for optical data. IR detectors are inherently more unstable, while the sky emission is over 100 times brighter than most objects of interest and varies in a complex spatial and temporal manner. In this presentation we describe the pipeline architecture developed to deal with the IR imaging data from WFCAM and discuss the primary issues involved in an endto- end system capable of: robustly removing instrument and night sky signatures; monitoring data quality and system integrity; providing astrometric and photometric calibration; and generating photon noise limited images and astronomical catalogues. Examples of primary data products will be shown. The system developed for WFCAM will be applied to the 16 detector infrared camera on VISTA which is due to be commissioned on Paranal late in 2006. |
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