IRAS Explanatory Supplement
X. The Formats of the IRAS Catalogs and Atlases
B. Point Sources
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The information about infrared point sources is presented
in increasing detail, progressing from the printed volumes to
the tape version of the catalog to the detailed description of
the observational and processing history of each source in a file
known as the Working Survey Data Base (WSDB) augmented by its
ancillary file. The printed version
(Section X.B.2) is intended
for users at the telescope or at institutions without computerized
information retrieval systems. The catalog tape
(Section X.B.1) is intended for astronomers
desiring to make statistical studies
and to search the catalog for large numbers of sources. The WSDB
and ancillary file (Section X.B.3) are
meant to give the sophisticated
researcher all the available data on any given source such as
its brightness on each hours-confirmed sighting, the detectors
involved and the details of the data reduction such as confusion
with neighboring sources.
Another catalog available only in machine readable form
lists the WSDB entries for all sources that failed one or more
of the confirmation and confusion criteria and were not, thus,
included in the main catalog. This file of REJECTED sources includes
spurious objects, including: processing failures, space debris,
asteroids and comets, and celestial sources that, due to incompleteness
at faint levels or to variability, failed to achieve the minimum
criterion of two hours-confirmed sightings. In regions of high
source density the file includes sources rejected by the more
severe criteria for reliability applied there
(Section V.H.6). Caveat emptor.
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