A pipeline for the ROTSE-IIId archival data

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Gucsav B. B., YEŞİLYAPRAK C., YERLİ S. K., AKSAKER N., Kiziloglu U., Coker D., ...More

EXPERIMENTAL ASTRONOMY, vol.33, no.1, pp.197-209, 2012 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 33 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2012
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s10686-011-9283-9
  • Journal Name: EXPERIMENTAL ASTRONOMY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.197-209
  • Keywords: Software: pipeline, Methods: data analysis, Telescopes: ROTSE-IIId, SPACED DATA, PHOTOMETRY, SYSTEM, STARS
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

We have constructed a new, fast, robust and reliable pipeline to detect variable stars from the ROTSE-IIId archival data. Turkish share of ROTSE-III archive contains approximately one million objects from a large field of view (1.85 degrees) and it considerably covers a large portion of northern sky (delta > -25 degrees). The unfiltered ROTSE-III magnitude of the objects ranges from 7.7 to 16.9. The main stages of the new pipeline are as follows: Source extraction, astrometry of the objects, light curve generation and inhomogeneous ensemble photometry. A high performance computing (HPC) algorithm has also been implemented into the pipeline where we had a good performance even on a personal computer. Running the algorithms of the pipeline on a cluster decreases analysis time significantly from weeks to hours. The pipeline is especially tested against long period variable stars with periods of a few hundred days (e.g Mira and SR) and variables having periods starting from a few days to a few hundred days were detected.