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The NRAO VLA Sky Survey

1998/05/01 by J. J. Condon, W. D. Cotton, E. W. Greisen +5 · 5,828 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Brightness #Celestial sphere #Declination #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Physics #Right ascension #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Sky

paper · doi:10.1086/300337

published in The Astronomical Journal 115(5), 1693-1716 (Institute of Physics)

openalex publication_date 1998/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

The NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) covers the sky north of J2000.0 δ = -40° (82% of the celestial sphere) at 1.4 GHz. The principal data products are (1) a set of 2326 4° × 4° continuum "cubes" with three planes containing Stokes I , Q , and U images plus (2) a catalog of almost 2 × 10 6 discrete sources stronger than S ≈ 2.5 mJy. The images all have θ = 45'' FWHM resolution and nearly uniform sensitivity. Their rms brightness fluctuations are σ ≈ 0.45 mJy beam -1 ≈ 0.14 K (Stokes I ) and σ ≈ 0.29 mJy beam -1 ≈ 0.09 K (Stokes Q and U ). The rms uncertainties in right ascension and declination vary from ≲1'' for the N ≈ 4 × 10 5 sources stronger than 15 mJy to 7'' at the survey limit. The NVSS was made as a service to the astronomical community. All data products, user software, and updates are being released via the World Wide Web as soon as they are produced and verified.

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