Now online our historical database of line reference spectra

We are making available a database with reference spectra (individual scans) taken with all heterodyne receivers at APEX. You can visit this list if you want to check for calibration variations between different epochs, for example if your project was observed in different observing runs or even in different years. These calibration CO or HCN scans are regularly taken together with the scientific observations for all projects.

Currently the database includes data from July 2018 onwards. You can access the Grafana interface by clicking in the image below. We have also linked this page from the section under APEX data.

Remember these indications about the use of the dashboard (some are directly written there):

  • The individual scans in the table are reference spectra of our line pointing sources, and the field Area is the integrated TA* [K km/s]
  • Notice that the figures in the last column are generated at UT 03:03 for the previous UT date. This means that typically the first few plots in the table will not be immediately available when you click on them.
  • The search fields to filter by Receiver (RX), Source and Line can be edited by typing, and they support text matching and the “%” wildcard
  • The selected data in the table can be downloaded as a .csv file. To do so, press the table title “Scans > Inspect > Data > Download CSV”
  • Whatever data is selected with the search filter reflects automatically in the displayed plot. Also the other way around: a time span can be selected by dragging in the plot a certain interval, and this will update the selection in the table.

We remind APEX users that we still have available calibration plan information for SHeFI data with a search engine and an interface to our database.