# A Correction for GALEX Spectroscopic UV Flux Distributions from Comparisons with CALSPEC and IUE

## TL;DR

This paper presents a calibration correction for GALEX UV flux data by comparing it with the CALSPEC standard and corrected IUE spectra, improving the accuracy of archival UV spectroscopic measurements.

## Contribution

It provides an average correction for GALEX spectral fluxes to align them with the CALSPEC UV flux calibration standard.

## Key findings

- GALEX fluxes are now calibrated to the CALSPEC scale.
- The correction improves UV flux measurement accuracy.
- Re-calibrated GALEX data will benefit future UV studies.

## Abstract

The CALSPEC database of absolute spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is based on pure hydrogen model atmosphere calculations for three unreddened white dwarf (WD) stars and represents the current UV flux calibration standard with a precision approaching 1% for well observed stars. Following our previous work to correct IUE fluxes, this paper provides an average correction for the GALEX spectral database that places GALEX fluxes on the current CALSPEC scale. Our correction is derived by comparing GALEX spectroscopic flux distributions with CALSPEC and corrected IUE SEDs. This re-calibration is relevant for any project based on GALEX archival spectroscopic data, e.g. UV or multi-wavelength analyses, correlating GALEX spectra with other existing or future databases, and planning of new observations. The re-calibration will be applied to our planned catalog of corrected GALEX SEDs.