Recalibration of Data in the VDFS Science Archives

TL;DR

This paper discusses a recalibration method for large infrared survey data in the VDFS archives, improving data accuracy and processing efficiency for massive catalogues from UKIDSS and VISTA.

Contribution

It introduces a new recalibration approach integrated into the VDFS system to handle terabyte-scale catalogues efficiently.

Findings

Enhanced calibration accuracy for large IR survey catalogues

Improved processing performance for massive datasets

Implementation in upcoming UKIDSS Data Release 4 and VISTA Science Archive

Abstract

The VDFS comprises the system to pipeline process and archive the data from infrared observations taken by both the WFCAM instrument on UKIRT and the forthcoming VISTA telescope. These include the largest near-IR surveys to date, such as UKIDSS, which produce terabyte sized catalogues of over 10^9 rows. Such large data volumes present a performance challenge when the catalogue data, stored in a relational database, require many iterations of astrometric and photometric recalibration. Here we present the VDFS recalibration solution that will be employed in the WSA from the forthcoming UKIDSS Data Release 4 and VSA from its inception.