About HIRES Extracted Spectra

In addition to the raw echellograms, KOA also provides access to extracted spectra which have been produced using an automated pipeline based upon the HIRES data reduction package MAKEE. The extracted spectra are intended to be used as a browse product to provide the user with a sense for the quality and content of the data and may not necessarily be suitable for publishable science.

KOA provides an interactive plot and table tool for users to visualize the extracted spectra. Please see HIRES Extracted Spectra Visualization for more information on using this tool.

The extracted spectra products include wavelength-calibrated spectra (counts vs. wavelength) for each spectral order on the raw images, signal-to-noise estimates vs. wavelength, and files generated by MAKEE which can be used as diagnostics of the spectral extraction. In addition, quickook preview images of the extracted spectra and signal-to-noise plots for each spectral order are provided. A list of the extracted spectra data products and their organization within the download package can be found at HIRES Extracted Spectra Products.

Because KOA employs an automated pipeline, not all spectral orders can be extracted without the introduction of reduction artifacts. KOA grades each extracted spectral order with a Pass, Fail or Unknown to inform the user of the quality of the automatic reduction. A Fail does not necessarily mean the data are no good, but rather the automatic reduction pipeline produced an extracted spectrum which is dominated by reduction artifacts. Please see Guide to Interpreting the Extracted Spectra for more information on spectra quality.