Quality Control and
Data Processing

Raw CALIB data types

Calibration data for NACO are taken for two purposes:

• assess the instrument status
• generate master calibration products

All calibration data taken by NACO and supported by the NACO pipeline are processed by QC Garching to obtain calibration solutions. These solutions come as calibration product fits file frames.

frame	DPR.TYPE	Purpose	N*
DARK	DARK	detector status, dark level, RON, hot pixels	5
TWILIGHT FLAT	SKY,FLAT	fixed pattern noise, vignetting, odd-even columns effect, bad pixels	10
SKY FLAT	SKY,FLAT	as twilight flat	15
LAMP FLAT	LAMP,FLAT	fixed pattern noise, vignetting	3 lamp=OFF, 3 lamp=ON
ZEROPOINTS	STD	standard stars for photometric zeropoints	5

*N: typical number taken per night and setting

The following types of raw calibration data exist for the NACO POLARIMETRY mode

frame	DPR.TYPE	Purpose	N*
LAMP FLAT	LAMP,FLAT	fixed pattern noise, vignetting in polarimetry mode	3 lamp=OFF, 3 lamp=ON
STANDARD STAR	STD	polarimetric standard star	-

The following types of raw calibration data exist for the NACO SPECTROSCOPY mode (this mode is decommissioned since P97)

frame	DPR.TYPE	Purpose	N*
LAMP FLAT	LAMP,FLAT	fixed pattern noise, vignetting in spectroscopy mode	3 lamp=OFF, 3 lamp=ON
ARC	LAMP,ARC	wavelength dispersion solution	1 lamp=OFF, 1 lamp=ON
STANDARD STAR	STD	telluric absorption lines, flux calibration	2

The following NACO calibration products are created from raw calibration files:

Raw frame(s)	recipe	description	product(s)
DARK	naco_img_dark	create a master dark from set of input raw frames	NACO_IMG_DARK_AVG
TWILIGHT FLAT	naco_img_twflat	create a master flat from, J, H and K-band frames	MASTER_IMG_FLAT, MASTER_IMG_FLAT_BADPIX
SKY FLAT	naco_img_twflat	create a mastr sky flat, L and M-band frames	MASTER_IMG_FLAT, MASTER_IMG_FLAT_BADPIX
LAMP FLAT	naco_img_lampflat	obtain the wavelength calibration solution from an input arc-lamp frame	MASTER_LAMP_FLAT
ZEROPOINT	naco_zpoint	retrieves instrument throughput based on photometric standard stars	ZPOINT_TABLE
STREHL	naco_std_strehl	retrieves actual adaptive optics performance	NACO_IMG_STREHL_CAL

Naming scheme

After production and certification, the calibration products are archived. They are named with a scheme including type, creation date and relevant setting parameters. The master calibrations are available for archive users through the calSelector service.

The processing of NACO calibration frames requires a cascaded scheme where the mutual dependencies of products and raw frames are respected. The proper sequence of all these production steps is called the calibration cascade. It is described per instrument mode. The association map for (the only pipeline supported mode) imaging is given here

All products created by QC Garching follow the calibration cascade. On the other hand, Paranal-processed science data use standard solutions created by QC Garching and possibly several months old.

Static calibration tables (the ones not being regularly processed from raw calibration data) come as FITS tables and are available through the calSelector archive service.

Table name	PRO.CATG	Purpose
NC_GCAT_080314A_IMG_STD_CATALOG.fits	IMG_STD_CATALOG	catalogue of photometric standard stars
NC_GSPA_080314A_SPC_ARGON.fits	SPC_ARGON	argon spectrum for naco_spc_wavecal recipe
NC_GSPM_080314A_SPC_MODEL.fits	SPC_MODEL	model spectrum for naco_spc_wavecal recipe