Astronomical Data Center

ADCADC/CDS Standard Document for Catalog:
/catalogs/3/3115/

The following is the "ReadMe" document that describes this ADC catalog. You can access the files described here in three ways:

1. Use the ADC Data Viewer Suite to visualize the data. [preview
2. Get the data files via anonymous FTP. (See Note.) [ftp


III/115       IUE Atlas of O-Type Stellar Spectra            (Walborn+ 1985)
================================================================================
International Ultraviolet Explorer Atlas of O-type Spectra from 1200 to 1900 A
   Walborn N.R., Nichols-Bohlin J., Panek R.J.
   <NASA Reference Publication #1155 (1985)>
   =1985N86-25307.....W   
================================================================================
ADC_Keywords: Stars, O; Spectroscopy; Spectra, ultraviolet; Atlases 

Abstract:
   The International Ultraviolet Explorer Atlas of O-Type Spectra From 1200
   to 1900 A (Walborn et el. 1985) lists normalized fluxes and flux quality
   factors, splice points, and identifying information (star name/number,
   spectral type, SWP number, and name of the principal investigator) on
   101 spectrograms of 98 O-type stars. The primary purpose of this work is
   to investigate the existence of systematic trends in the ultraviolet
   line spectra of the O stars, including the prominent stellar wind
   features, and the degree to which they correlate with the optical
   spectral classifications. A subsidiary objective is to identify
   ultraviolet features which may themselves prove useful as
   classifications criteria.

File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FileName       Lrecl       Records     Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe             80            .      This file
stars.dat          79           100     Star IDs, Spectral Types, IUE image
                                        numbers, PI names, atlas page numbers
spectra.dat        80         80800     Fluxes and data quality flags
splices.dat        74          1313     Splice points of spectra
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Byte-by-byte Description of file: stars.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Bytes Format  Units   Label     Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1- 10  A10    ---     ID        HD/HDE or Sanduleak (Sk) number of star
  13- 26  A14    ---     Name      Name of star
  29- 44  A16    ---     Sp        Optical spectral classification
  47- 51  I5     ---     SWP_num   SWP camera image number of observation
  54- 69  A16    ---     PI_name   Name of the IUE principal investigator
  72- 73  I2     ---     Plate_1  *First atlas plate showing spectrogram
  75- 76  I2     ---     Plate_2   ?Second atlas plate showing spectrogram
  78- 79  I2     ---     Plate_3   ?Third atlas plate showing spectrogram
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note on Plate_1:
   Location of of the spectrogram in the printed atlas.  Each plate covers two
   pages in the atlas (first page covers 1200-1500 A, and the second page
   covers 1500-1900 A).  Some spectrograms appear on more than one plate.


Byte-by-byte Description of file: spectra.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Bytes Format  Units   Label     Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1- 10  A10    ---     ID       *HD/HDE or Sanduleak (Sk) number of star
  13- 16  I4     0.1nm   lambda   *Wavelength of first flux/quality pair
  18- 26  F9.5   ---     flux_1   *Normalized flux at wavelength=lambda
  29- 32  F4.2   ---     qual_1   *Data quality flag associated with flux_1
  34- 42  F9.5   ---     flux_2    Normalized flux at wavelength=lambda+0.025 nm
  45- 48  F4.2   ---     qual_2    Data quality flag associated with flux_2
  50- 58  F9.5   ---     flux_3    Normalized flux at wavelength=lambda+0.050 nm
  61- 64  F4.2   ---     qual_3    Data quality flag associated with flux_3
  66- 74  F9.5   ---     flux_4    Normalized flux at wavelength lambda+0.075 nm
  77- 80  F4.2   ---     qual_4    Data quality flag associated with flux_4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note on ID:
   There are 800 records for each star, and the ID appears at the beginning of
   each record for a given star.
Note on lambda:
   The quoted wavelength value is the wavelength of the flux_1 and qual_1 data
   pair.  The wavelengths for the subsequent flux/qual data pairs in the
   record are in increments of 0.025 nm.
Note on flux_1:
   See Appendix A: "Data Preparation" for a brief description of how the
   normalized flux was calculated.
Note on qual_1:
   See Appendix A: "Data Preparation" for a brief description of how this
   normalized quality factor was calculated.


Byte-by-byte Description of file: splices.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Bytes Format  Units   Label     Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1- 10  A10    ---     ID       *HD/HDE or Sanduleak (Sk) number of star
  11- 18  F8.1   0.1nm   splice1  *First splice point 
  19- 26  F8.1   0.1nm   splice2  *?Second splice point 
  27- 34  F8.1   0.1nm   splice3  *?Third splice point 
  35- 42  F8.1   0.1nm   splice4  *?Fourth splice point 
  43- 50  F8.1   0.1nm   splice5  *?Fifth splice point 
  51- 58  F8.1   0.1nm   splice6  *?Sixth splice point 
  59- 66  F8.1   0.1nm   splice7  *?Seventh splice point 
  67- 74  F8.1   0.1nm   splice8  *?Eighth splice point 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note on ID:
   There are 13 records for each star, and the ID appears at the beginning of
   each record for a given star.
Note on splice*:
   Splice points are the wavelength values where overlap of successive orders
   of the IUE spectrum have been spliced together.  These values come in four
   pairs per record, where for each pair:
      The first wavelength the beginning of the next (higher) order, and
      The second wavelength of the end of the previous (lower) order.
Appendix:

A. Data Preparation:
   This section briefly describes the steps involved in selecting and
   processing the data comprising this atlas. The following description was
   extracted from an edited version of Walborn et al. (1995).
 A.1 Selection
   Approximately 200 O stars have short-wavelength, high-resolution data in
   the IUE archive. 120 of these were examined for possible inclusion in
   the atlas. The primary selection criterion was the availability of
   homogeneous optical spectral classifications by Walborn (1972 AJ 77,
   312; 1973 AJ 78, 1067). In general, known interacting binaries and very
   rapid rotators were avoided, but a number of peculiar objects and
   categories which have been well described optically were specifically
   included.
 A.2   Processing
   The IUE Spectral Image Processing System (IUESIPS) data were retrieved
   from the IUE data archive. Each gross spectrum included samples of the
   observed signal along each echelle order, integrated along a
   pseudo-slit; and a corresponding sample of the interorder background.
   Sample wavelength and a data quality indicator were also included.
   Processing then proceeded through the following steps:

    1. The background was smoothed and subtracted from the on-order
      signal to yield the net spectrum.
    2. A "ripple" correction was applied to adjust for systematic
      variation along each order caused by the varying sensitivity of the
      echelle grating. Overlap among adjacent orders [was] discarded beyond
      the wavelengths at which which the sensitivities [were] equal. These
      points of overlap are listed in the second file.
     The spectrum was then resampled to 0.25 A resolution:
      Each original sample was considered an estimate of the flux averaged
      over a bin whose width was equal to the spacing between the adjacent
      points. Each new sample was computed as a weighted average of the
      original samples; the weight of each original sample is equal to the
      fraction of its bin which falls within the 0.25 A window centered on
      the new wavelength point. However, the weight is zero for any
      original point for which the IUESIPS quality factor indicated
      contamination by a camera reseau, saturation of the vidicon camera,
      or a particle radiation hit. The new sample points were spaced evenly
      at 0.25 A intervals from 1150 A to 1950 A. For each new sample point,
      a quality factor was computed as the sum of the weights for the
      original samples contributing to the new point. This quality factor
      ranges from about 6 at 1200 A (where there is no effect of a reseau,
      etc.) to about 4 at 1800 A for IUESIPS processing at GSFC before
      November 1981. With the newer version of IUESIPS, this factor is
      roughly doubled due to the finer wavelength sampling of the spectrum.
  3. The resampled spectrum was then rescaled in order to locate the stellar
     continuum at an approximately uniform level:
      This ... was performed interactively ... by identifying about a dozen
      "continuum" points spaced along the interval 1150-1950 A. Then, the
      flux was divided by a cubic spline interpolated through these points.
      The intention here was not to precisely define a stellar continuum;
      it was simply to place the spectrum onto a convenient scale for
      plotting over the full spectral range. The renormalization function
      usually showed a broad hump between 1400 and 1600 A. It is unclear
      whether this represents a rise in the instrument sensitivity near
      1500 A or an effect of blended spectral absorption features near 1400
      and 1600 A. Similarly, the data quality factor was normalized to
      remove the effect of the decreasing spectral dispersion toward longer
      wavelengths, which causes the number of original samples within a
      0.25 A window to decrease.

      Narrow positive spikes in the flux data due to particle radiation
      hits and the geocoronal Lyman alpha emission were eliminated
      manually.
   In addition, the catalog authors note the following:
      Small deviations from unity in the data quality factor occur where a
      few of the original sample points in the 0.25 A resample window were
      contaminated by a reseau. Large deviations from unity occur where
      most or all of the points were affected by a reseau. In many cases,
      no effect of the reseau is apparent in the stellar spectrum; this
      occurs when the reseau falls close to but not precisely onto the
      stellar spectrum, and the interorder background is weak.
================================================================================
(End)            Joel W. Parker         [GSFC/Code 680]   7-Aug-1995

Go to ADC Home Page