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TESS Science Processing Operations Center FFI Target List Products
Douglas A. Caldwell, Peter Tenenbaum, Joseph D. Twicken, Jon M. Jenkins, Eric Ting, Jeffrey C. Smith, Christina L. Hedges, Michael M. Fausnaugh, Mark Rose, Christopher J. Burke
TL;DR
FFI target selection must balance potentially valuable targets with processing-time constraints. The pipeline applies ordered magnitude and crowding criteria, selecting 152,359 to 160,000 targets per Northern hemisphere sector, with a cap of 10,000 per CCD.
Problem
FFI target selection must retain potentially valuable targets while limiting processing-time impact.
Source: §1 · p. 2Method
The selection prioritizes potentially high-value FFI include targets using magnitude, distance, and crowding criteria, then adds field stars in TESS-magnitude order subject to a crowding threshold.
Source: §1 · p. 2Results
152,359 targets in Sector 22 and 160,000 in Sectors 17–21 and 24–26 were selected, with a limit of ∼10,000 targets per CCD.
Source: §1 · p. 2Takeaways & Limitations
H-magnitude ≤10 or distance ≤100 pc criteria include IR-bright or nearby stars considered valuable for exoplanet follow-up.
Source: §1 · p. 2Selection is capped at 10,000 targets per CCD, and the resulting magnitude cutoff varies across the focal plane with crowding.
Source: §1 · p. 2
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
We report the delivery to the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes of target pixel and light curve files for up to 160,000 targets selected from full-frame images (FFI) for each TESS Northern hemisphere observing sector. The data include calibrated target pixels, simple aperture photometry flux time series, and presearch data conditioning corrected flux time series. These data provide TESS users with high quality, uniform pipeline products for a selection of FFI targets, that would otherwise not be readily available. Additionally, we deliver cotrending basis vectors derived from the FFI targets to allow users to perform their own systematic error corrections. The selected targets include all 2-minute targets and additional targets selected from the TESS Input Catalog with a maximum of 10,000 targets per sector on each of the sixteen TESS CCDs. The data products are in the same format as the project-delivered files for the TESS 2-minute targets. All of the TESS-SPOC data products are available at the MAST as a High Level Science Product via https://doi.org/10.17909/t9-wpz1-8s54.
1. Select all two–minute targets (nominally 20,000 per sector)
The selection prioritizes potentially valuable FFI targets while limiting processing impact. Per-sector totals vary with the per-CCD cap and crowding across the field.
1. Select all two–minute targets (nominally 20,000 per sector)
- FFI include targets are selected for H magnitude ≤10 or distance ≤100 pc, crowding metric ≥0.5, and TESS magnitude ≤16.The H-magnitude and distance criteria target IR-bright or nearby stars considered valuable for exoplanet follow-up.Source: §1 · p. 2
- Additional FFI field stars are selected in TESS-magnitude order and require a crowding metric ≥0.8.Source: §1 · p. 2
- 152,359 targets in Sector 22 and 160,000 in Sectors 17–21 and 24–26 were selected, with a limit of ∼10,000 targets per CCD.Early testing indicated minimal processing-time impact at that per-CCD limit.Source: §1 · p. 2
- The per-CCD cap produces a varying magnitude cutoff across the focal plane because crowding varies across TESS’s field of view.Selection on each CCD follows the stated order until 10,000 targets are selected or all targets meeting the third criterion have been selected.Source: §1 · p. 2