Repository logo
 

SDSS-IV MaNGA IFS GALAXY SURVEY - SURVEY DESIGN, EXECUTION, and INITIAL DATA QUALITY

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Abstract

The MaNGA Survey (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is one of three core programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV. It is obtaining integral field spectroscopy (IFS) for 10K nearby galaxies at a spectral resolution of R~2000 from 3,622-10,354A. The design of the survey is driven by a set of science requirements on the precision of estimates of the following properties: star formation rate surface density, gas metallicity, stellar population age, metallicity, and abundance ratio, and their gradients; stellar and gas kinematics; and enclosed gravitational mass as a function of radius. We describe how these science requirements set the depth of the observations and dictate sample selection. The majority of targeted galaxies are selected to ensure uniform spatial coverage in units of effective radius (Re) while maximizing spatial resolution. About 2/3 of the sample is covered out to 1.5Re (Primary sample), and 1/3 of the sample is covered to 2.5Re (Secondary sample). We describe the survey execution with details that would be useful in the design of similar future surveys. We also present statistics on the achieved data quality, specifically, the point spread function, sampling uniformity, spectral resolution, sky subtraction, and flux calibration. For our Primary sample, the median r-band signal-to-noise ratio is ~73 per 1.4A pixel for spectra stacked between 1-1.5 Re. Measurements of various galaxy properties from the first year data show that we are meeting or exceeding the defined requirements for the majority of our science goals.

Description

Keywords

galaxies: evolution, galaxies: general, surveys, techniques: imaging spectroscopy

Journal Title

Astronomical Journal

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0004-6256
1538-3881

Volume Title

152

Publisher

American Astronomical Society
Sponsorship
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/K003119/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/M001172/1)
World Premier International Research Center Initiative, MEXT, Japan; National Science Foundation (Grant ID: NSF/AST 1517007); Leverhulme Trust (Early Career Fellowship); The Grainger Foundation; Grant ID: RSF 14-50-00043; Royal Society (University Research Fellowship); Chinese Academy of Sciences (Strategic Priority Research Program “The Emergence of Cosmological Structures”, Grant ID: XDB09000000); National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant ID: 11333003 and 11390372); Science and Technology Facilities Council