APOGEE Data and Spectral Analysis from SDSS Data Release 16: Seven Years of Observations Including First Results from APOGEE-South

TL;DR

This paper details the seventh data release of APOGEE, including new spectra, improved analysis methods, and first-time elemental abundances, enhancing the spectral data quality and scientific utility for stellar studies.

Contribution

It introduces significant updates to APOGEE data processing, including new spectra, analysis techniques, and elemental abundance measurements, especially from the southern hemisphere instrument.

Findings

Increased dataset with 200,000 new spectra.

Improved radial velocity accuracy aligning with Gaia DR2.

First inclusion of neutron capture element Ce abundances.

Abstract

The spectral analysis and data products in Data Release 16 (DR16; December 2019) from the high-resolution near-infrared APOGEE-2/SDSS-IV survey are described. Compared to the previous APOGEE data release (DR14; July 2017), APOGEE DR16 includes about 200000 new stellar spectra, of which 100000 are from a new southern APOGEE instrument mounted on the 2.5 m du Pont telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. DR16 includes all data taken up to August 2018, including data released in previous data releases. All of the data have been re-reduced and re-analyzed using the latest pipelines, resulting in a total of 473307 spectra of 437445 stars. Changes to the analysis methods for this release include, but are not limited to, the use of MARCS model atmospheres for calculation of the entire main grid of synthetic spectra used in the analysis, a new method for filling "holes" in the grids due to unconverged model atmospheres, and a new scheme for continuum normalization. Abundances of the neutron capture element Ce are included for the first time. A new scheme for estimating uncertainties of the derived quantities using stars with multiple observations has been applied, and calibrated values of surface gravities for dwarf stars are now supplied. Compared to DR14, the radial velocities derived for this release more closely match those in the Gaia DR2 data base, and a clear improvement in the spectral analysis of the coolest giants can be seen. The reduced spectra as well as the result of the analysis can be downloaded using links provided in the SDSS DR16 web page.