CASSIS: The Cornell Atlas of Spitzer/IRS Sources

TL;DR

CASSIS offers a comprehensive spectral atlas of over 11,000 sources observed with Spitzer/IRS, providing high-quality spectra, diagnostics, and ancillary data through an accessible online database for astronomical research.

Contribution

This work introduces a new, extensive spectral atlas with optimized extraction algorithms and an online platform for analyzing low-resolution Spitzer/IRS data, enhancing data accessibility and quality.

Findings

Over 11,000 high-quality spectra available online

Optimized extraction improves signal-to-noise ratio

Includes diagnostics and ancillary data for each source

Abstract

We present the spectral atlas of sources observed in low resolution with the Infrared Spectrograph on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. More than 11,000 distinct sources were extracted using a dedicated algorithm based on the SMART software with an optimal extraction (AdOpt package). These correspond to all 13,000 low resolution observations of fixed objects (both single source and cluster observations). The pipeline includes image cleaning, individual exposure combination, and background subtraction. A particular attention is given to bad pixel and outlier rejection at the image and spectra levels. Most sources are spatially unresolved so that optimal extraction reaches the highest possible signal-to-noise ratio. For all sources, an alternative extraction is also provided that accounts for all of the source flux within the aperture. CASSIS provides publishable quality spectra through an online database together with several important diagnostics, such as the source spatial extent and a quantitative measure of detection level. Ancillary data such as available spectroscopic redshifts are also provided. The database interface will eventually provide various ways to interact with the spectra, such as on-the-fly measurements of spectral features or comparisons among spectra.