A Spatial Uniformity Check of Gaia DR3 Photometry and BP/RP Spectra

TL;DR

This study assesses the spatial uniformity of Gaia DR3 photometry and BP/RP spectra, revealing small overall discrepancies but notable spatial patterns linked to Gaia's scanning law, and highlighting areas for future improvement.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the spatial uniformity of Gaia DR3 data, comparing photometry with spectra, and identifies the spectral data as less uniform than photometry.

Findings

Discrepancies are small, with dispersions of about 1 mmag.

Spatial patterns correlate with Gaia's scanning law.

Spectral data shows less uniformity than photometry.

Abstract

Gaia DR3 photometry and BP/RP spectra have been widely used as reference in photometric calibrations. In this work, we check the spatial uniformity of Gaia DR3 photometry and BP/RP spectra by comparing the BP, RP and G bands photometry with the synthetic ones from the BP/RP spectra. The discrepancies have a small dispersion of 1.07, 0.55 and 1.02 mmag for the BP, RP, and G bands, respectively. However, the discrepancies exhibit obvious spatial patterns, which are clearly associated with the Gaia's scanning law. The patterns observed in the BP and G bands are similar, with discrepancies between photometry and spectra being more pronounced in these bands compared to the RP band. A further independent test with the Dark Energy Survey DR2 photometry reveals that the spatial patterns are more likely attributed to the Gaia DR3 BP/RP spectra, particularly in the BP band. On one hand, our results confirm the high spatial uniformity of Gaia data at the mmag level. On the other hand, our results suggest that the spatial uniformity of Gaia DR3 BP/RP spectra is not as good as that of Gaia DR3 photometry, and could be further improved in the future.