The Sixteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release from the APOGEE-2 Southern Survey and Full Release of eBOSS Spectra

TL;DR

The paper details the sixteenth data release from SDSS, including new APOGEE-2 southern data, final eBOSS spectra, and data from TDSS and SPIDERS, marking significant milestones in SDSS data collection and future plans.

Contribution

It provides the first APOGEE-2 southern data release, completes eBOSS spectra release, and summarizes SDSS-IV's final data release and future SDSS-V plans.

Findings

First APOGEE-2 southern data included

Final eBOSS spectra released

Summary of SDSS-IV final data release and SDSS-V plans

Abstract

This paper documents the sixteenth data release (DR16) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys; the fourth and penultimate from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). This is the first release of data from the southern hemisphere survey of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2); new data from APOGEE-2 North are also included. DR16 is also notable as the final data release for the main cosmological program of the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), and all raw and reduced spectra from that project are released here. DR16 also includes all the data from the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) and new data from the SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Survey (SPIDERS) programs, both of which were co-observed on eBOSS plates. DR16 has no new data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey (or the MaNGA Stellar Library "MaStar"). We also preview future SDSS-V operations (due to start in 2020), and summarize plans for the final SDSS-IV data release (DR17).