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Glossary of WSA NonSurvey attributes (UKIDSSDR5)
This Glossary alphabetically lists all attributes used in the WSA NonSurvey database(s) held in the WSA. If you would like to have more information about the schema tables please use the Schema Browser (other Browser versions).

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

B
Name	Schema Table	Database	Description	Type	Length	Unit	Default Value	Unified Content Descriptor
b	[nspid]CurrentAstrometry, [nspid]PreviousAstrometry	WSA NonSurvey	Galactic latitude of device centre	float	8	Degrees		POS_GAL_LAT
b	[nspid]Detection, [nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Galactic latitude	float	8	Degrees		POS_GAL_LAT
bandMergingCriterion	[nspid]RequiredSynoptic	WSA NonSurvey	maximum timespan over which different filters are merged into sources in the synoptic source table.	real	4	minutes	-0.9999995e9
beamNS	[nspid]Multiframe	WSA NonSurvey	Topend: N-S beam {image primary HDU keyword: NSBEAM}	real	4		-0.9999995e9
beamWE	[nspid]Multiframe	WSA NonSurvey	Topend: W-E beam {image primary HDU keyword: WEBEAM}	real	4		-0.9999995e9
bitsPerPix	[nspid]MultiframeDetector	WSA NonSurvey	Number of bits per data pixel, eg. +32 = 4 byte integers {image extension keyword: BITPIX}	smallint	2	FITS bitpix		NUMBER
bMag	[nspid]FSstars	WSA NonSurvey	B band total magnitude	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_INT-MAG
brAperMag3	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Default point/extended source Br aperture corrected mag (2.0 arcsec aperture diameter) If in doubt use this flux estimator	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_MAG
brAperMag3Err	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Error in default point/extended source Br mag (2.0 arcsec aperture diameter)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	ERROR
brAperMag4	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Extended source Br aperture corrected mag (2.8 arcsec aperture diameter)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_MAG
brAperMag4Err	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Error in extended source Br mag (2.8 arcsec aperture diameter)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	ERROR
brAperMag6	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Extended source Br aperture corrected mag (5.7 arcsec aperture diameter)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_MAG
brAperMag6Err	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Error in extended source Br mag (5.7 arcsec aperture diameter)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	ERROR
brClass	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	discrete image classification flag in Br	smallint	2		-9999	CLASS_MISC
brClassStat	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	N(0,1) stellarness-of-profile statistic in Br	real	4		-0.9999995e9	STAT_PROP
brDeblend	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	placeholder flag indicating parent/child relation in Br	int	4		-99999999	CODE_MISC
			This CASU pipeline processing source extraction flag is a placeholder only, and is always set to zero in all passbands in the merged source lists. If you need to know when a particular image detection is a component of a deblend or not, test bit 4 of attribute ppErrBits (see corresponding glossary entry) which is set by WFAU's post-processing software based on testing the areal profiles aprof2-8 (these are set by CASU to -1 for deblended components, or positive values for non-deblended detections). We encode this in an information bit of ppErrBits for convenience when querying the merged source tables.
brEll	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	1-b/a, where a/b=semi-major/minor axes in Br	real	4		-0.9999995e9	PHYS_ELLIPTICITY
breNum	[nspid]MergeLog	WSA NonSurvey	the extension number of this Br detector	tinyint	1			NUMBER
brErrBits	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	processing warning/error bitwise flags in Br	int	4		-99999999	CODE_MISC
brEta	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Offset of Br detection from master position (+north/-south)	real	4	arcsec	-0.9999995e9	POS_EQ_DEC_OFF
			When associating individual passband detections into merged sources, a generous (in terms of the positional uncertainties) pairing radius of 2.0 (UKIDSS LAS and GPS; also non-survey programmes) or 1.0 (UKIDSS GPS, DXS and UDS) arcseconds is used, the higher value enabling pairing of moving sources when epoch separations may be several years. Such a large association criterion can of course lead to spurious pairings in the merged sources lists (although note that between passband pairs, handshake pairing is done: both passbands must agree that the candidate pair is their nearest neighbour for the pair to propagate through into the merged source table). In order to help filter spurious pairings out, and assuming that large positional offsets between the different passband detections are not expected (e.g. because of source motion, or larger than usual positional uncertainties) then the attributes Xi and Eta can be used to filter any pairings with suspiciously large offsets in one or more bands. For example, for a clean sample of QSOs from the LAS, you might wish to insist that the offsets in the selected sample are all below 1 arcsecond: simply add WHERE clauses into the SQL sample selection script to exclude all Xi and Eta values larger than the threshold you want.
brGausig	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	RMS of axes of ellipse fit in Br	real	4	pixels	-0.9999995e9	MORPH_PARAM
brHallMag	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Total point source Br mag	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_MAG
brHallMagErr	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Error in total point source Br mag	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	ERROR
brmfID	[nspid]MergeLog	WSA NonSurvey	the UID of the relevant Br multiframe	bigint	8			ID_FRAME
brObjID	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	DEPRECATED (do not use)	bigint	8		-99999999	ID_NUMBER
			This attribute is included in source tables for historical reasons, but it's use is not recommended unless you really know what you are doing. In general, if you need to look up detection table attributes for a source in a given passband that are not in the source table, you should make an SQL join between source, mergelog and detection using the primary key attribute frameSetID and combination multiframeID, extNum, seqNum to associate related rows between the three tables. See the Q&A example SQL for more information.
brPA	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	ellipse fit celestial orientation in Br	real	4	Degrees	-0.9999995e9	POS_POS-ANG
brPetroMag	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Extended source Br mag (Petrosian)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_MAG
brPetroMagErr	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Error in extended source Br mag (Petrosian)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	ERROR
brppErrBits	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	additional WFAU post-processing error bits in Br	int	4		0	CODE_MISC
brPsfMag	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Point source profile-fitted Br mag	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_MAG
brPsfMagErr	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Error in point source profile-fitted Br mag	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	ERROR
brSeqNum	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	the running number of the Br detection	int	4		-99999999	ID_NUMBER
brSerMag2D	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Extended source Br mag (profile-fitted)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	PHOT_MAG
brSerMag2DErr	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Error in extended source Br mag (profile-fitted)	real	4	mag	-0.9999995e9	ERROR
brXi	[nspid]Source	WSA NonSurvey	Offset of Br detection from master position (+east/-west)	real	4	arcsec	-0.9999995e9	POS_EQ_RA_OFF
			When associating individual passband detections into merged sources, a generous (in terms of the positional uncertainties) pairing radius of 2.0 (UKIDSS LAS and GPS; also non-survey programmes) or 1.0 (UKIDSS GPS, DXS and UDS) arcseconds is used, the higher value enabling pairing of moving sources when epoch separations may be several years. Such a large association criterion can of course lead to spurious pairings in the merged sources lists (although note that between passband pairs, handshake pairing is done: both passbands must agree that the candidate pair is their nearest neighbour for the pair to propagate through into the merged source table). In order to help filter spurious pairings out, and assuming that large positional offsets between the different passband detections are not expected (e.g. because of source motion, or larger than usual positional uncertainties) then the attributes Xi and Eta can be used to filter any pairings with suspiciously large offsets in one or more bands. For example, for a clean sample of QSOs from the LAS, you might wish to insist that the offsets in the selected sample are all below 1 arcsecond: simply add WHERE clauses into the SQL sample selection script to exclude all Xi and Eta values larger than the threshold you want.