The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

Thomas Bensby

Senior lecturer

Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

The Gaia-ESO survey: Calibration strategy

Author

  • E. Pancino
  • C. Lardo
  • G. Altavilla
  • S. Marinoni
  • S. Ragaini
  • G. Cocozza
  • M. Bellazzini
  • E. Sabbi
  • M. Zoccali
  • P. Donati
  • U. Heiter
  • S. E. Koposov
  • R. Blomme
  • T. Morel
  • S. Símon-Díaz
  • A. Lobel
  • C. Soubiran
  • J. Montalban
  • M. Valentini
  • A. R. Casey
  • S. Blanco-Cuaresma
  • P. Jofré
  • C. C. Worley
  • L. Magrini
  • A. Hourihane
  • P. François
  • S. Feltzing
  • G. Gilmore
  • S. Randich
  • M. Asplund
  • P. Bonifacio
  • J. E. Drew
  • R. D. Jeffries
  • G. Micela
  • A. Vallenari
  • E. J. Alfaro
  • C. Allende Prieto
  • C. Babusiaux
  • T. Bensby
  • A. Bragaglia
  • E. Flaccomio
  • N. Hambly
  • A. J. Korn
  • A. C. Lanzafame
  • R. Smiljanic
  • S. Van Eck
  • N. A. Walton
  • A. Bayo
  • G. Carraro
  • B. Edvardsson
Show all

Summary, in English

The Gaia-ESO survey (GES) is now in its fifth and last year of observations and has produced tens of thousands of high-quality spectra of stars in all Milky Way components. This paper presents the strategy behind the selection of astrophysical calibration targets, ensuring that all GES results on radial velocities, atmospheric parameters, and chemical abundance ratios will be both internally consistent and easily comparable with other literature results, especially from other large spectroscopic surveys and from Gaia. The calibration of GES is particularly delicate because of (i) the large space of parameters covered by its targets, ranging from dwarfs to giants, from O to M stars; these targets have a large wide of metallicities and also include fast rotators, emission line objects, and stars affected by veiling; (ii) the variety of observing setups, with different wavelength ranges and resolution; and (iii) the choice of analyzing the data with many different state-of-the-art methods, each stronger in a different region of the parameter space, which ensures a better understanding of systematic uncertainties. An overview of the GES calibration and homogenization strategy is also given, along with some examples of the usage and results of calibrators in GES iDR4, which is the fourth internal GES data release and will form the basis of the next GES public data release. The agreement between GES iDR4 recommended values and reference values for the calibrating objects are very satisfactory. The average offsets and spreads are generally compatible with the GES measurement errors, which in iDR4 data already meet the requirements set by the main GES scientific goals.

Department/s

  • Lund Observatory - Undergoing reorganization
  • Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics - Undergoing reorganization

Publishing year

2017-02-01

Language

English

Publication/Series

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Volume

598

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

EDP Sciences

Topic

  • Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Keywords

  • Galaxy: general
  • Stars: abundances
  • Surveys
  • Techniques: radial velocities
  • Techniques: spectroscopic

Status

Published

Project

  • Gaia-ESO Survey

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0004-6361