2003/04/30 by Martin Cohen, Wm. A. Wheaton, S. T. Megeath · 13 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Absolute magnitude #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Calibration #Infrared #Light curve #Merge (version control) #Photometry (optics) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Spectral line #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/376474
published as Astron.J. 126 (2003) 1090 · 25 pages, Latex, AASTEX5 macros. Revised Table 2 includes updated estimates of some uncertainties
arxiv created 2003/05/05 · openalex publication_date 2003/07/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Element by element, we have combined the optical components in the three cameras of the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and incorporated detector quantum efficiency curves and site-specific atmospheric transmissions, to create three relative spectral response curves (RSRs). We provide the absolute 2MASS attributes associated with "zero magnitude" in the JHK s bands so that these RSRs may be used for synthetic photometry. The RSRs tie 2MASS to the "Cohen-Walker-Witteborn" framework of absolute photometry and stellar spectra for the purpose of using 2MASS data to support the development of absolute calibrators for the Infrared Array Camera and pairwise cross-calibrators between all three SIRTF instruments. We examine the robustness of these RSRs to changes in water vapor within a night. We compare the observed 2MASS magnitudes of 33 stars (converted from the precision optical calibrators of Landolt and Carter-Meadows into absolute infrared calibrators from 1.2 to 35 μm) with our predictions, thereby deriving 2MASS "zero-point offsets" from the ensemble. These offsets are the final ingredients essential to merge 2MASS JHK s data with our other absolutely calibrated bands and stellar spectra, and to support the creation of faint calibration stars for SIRTF .