A Method of Correcting Near‐Infrared Spectra for Telluric Absorption1

2002/11/12 by William D. Vacca, William D. Vacca, Michael C. Cushing +4 · 1,061 citations
Chemistry · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Atmospheric Ozone and Climate #Computer science #Geology #Infrared #Infrared spectroscopy #Infrared telescope #Optics #Physics #Remote sensing #Resolution (logic) #Spectral line #Spectral resolution #Spectrograph #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Telescope #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/346193

published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 115(805), 389-409 (Institute of Physics) · 39 pages, 10 figures, To appear in the Feb 2003 issue of PASP; IDL source code, as well as full resolution versions of the figures, are available at http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/Facility/spex/

arxiv created 2002/11/12 · openalex publication_date 2003/03/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We present a method for correcting near‐infrared medium‐resolution spectra for telluric absorption. The method makes use of a spectrum of an A0 V star, observed near in time and close in air mass to the target object, and a high‐resolution model of Vega, to construct a telluric correction spectrum that is free of stellar absorption features. The technique was designed specifically to perform telluric corrections on spectra obtained with SpeX, a 0.8–5.5 μm medium‐resolution cross‐dispersed spectrograph at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, and uses the fact that for medium resolutions there exist spectral regions uncontaminated by atmospheric absorption lines. However, it is also applicable (in a somewhat modified form) to spectra obtained with other near‐infrared spectrographs. An IDL‐based code that carries out the procedures is available for downloading via the World Wide Web.

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