V/114               MSX6C Infrared Point Source Catalog     (Egan+ 2003)
================================================================================
The Midcourse Space Experiment Point Source Catalog Version 2.3 (October 2003)
     Egan M.P., Price S.D., Kraemer K.E., Mizuno D.R., Carey S.J., Wright C.O.,
     Engelke C.W., Cohen M., Gugliotti G. M.
    <Air Force Research Laboratory Technical Report AFRL-VS-TR-2003-1589 (2003)>
    =2003yCat.5114....0E
================================================================================
ADC_Keywords: Infrared sources; Photometry, infrared; Surveys
Mission_Name: MSX

Description:
    Version 2.3 of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) Point Source
    Catalog (PSC), which supersedes the version (1.2) that was released
    in 1999 (Cat. V/107), contains over 100,000 more sources than the
    previous version. The photometry is based on co-added image plates, as
    opposed to single-scan data, which results in improved sensitivity and
    hence reliability in the fluxes. Comparison with Tycho-2 positions
    indicates that the astrometric accuracy of the new catalog is more
    than 1'' better than that in Version 1.2. In addition to the Galactic
    plane, Areas Missed by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), and
    the Large Magellanic Cloud, which were included in the previous
    catalog, Version 2.3 includes data from the Small Magellanic Cloud,
    eight nearby galaxies, and several molecular clouds and star forming
    regions.

    The infrared instrument on MSX was named SPIRIT III; it was a 35cm
    clear aperture off-axis telescope with five line scanned infrared
    focal plane arrays of 18.3arcsec square pixels, with a high
    sensitivity (0.1Jy at 8.3micron). The 6 bands are B1 (4.29micron, FWHM
    4.22-4.36micron), B2 (4.25micron, 4.24-4.45micron), A (8.28micron,
    6.8-10.8micron), C (12.13micron, 11.1-13.2micron), D (14.65micron,
    13.5-15.9micron), and E (21.34micron, 18.2-25.1micron).

    The MSX catalog names of the sources have been defined according to
    International Astronomical Union (IAU) conventions with a unique
    identifier combined with the position of the source. In this case,
    the MSX PSC V2.3 sources are named using the convention
       MSX6C GLLL.llll+/-BB.bbbb,
    where MSX6C denotes that this is MSX data run using Version 6.0 of
    the CONVERT software, and GLLL.llll+/-BB.bbbb gives the Galactic
    coordinates of the source. (Names in the minicatalogs may differ
    slightly from those given in Kraemer et al. 2002AJ....124.2990K,
    2003AJ....126.1423K)

    For ease of handling, the main catalog is broken into six files: five
    for the Galactic plane survey, plus the primary high latitude regions
    (the IRAS gaps and the LMC). The supplementary catalogs are the
    singleton catalog, the low-reliability catalog, and minicatalogs for
    19 selected regions. All catalogs have the same format. However, the
    minicatalogs for the galaxies (except the SMC) and Orion do not have
    all the fields filled in because they were solely created from the
    images, not from the Point Source Extractor; there are no singleton
    files for these regions. Also, the minicatalogs may not have singleton
    or low-reliability counterparts if no sources met the inclusion
    criteria. All told, there are a total of 45 data files.

File Summary:
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 FileName   Lrecl  Records   Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe         80        .   This file
guide.ps      120    96061   Explanatory Guide
gp_m2m6.dat   354    76926   Galactic plane, -6. <= b < -2
gp_m05m2.dat  354    92116   Galactic plane, -2. <= b < -0.5
gp_pm05.dat   354   107309   Galactic plane,       |b|<= 0.5
gp_p05p2.dat  354    86579   Galactic plane,  0.5<  b <= 2
gp_p2p6.dat   354    68781   Galactic plane,  2. <  b <= 6
gb_gt6.dat    354     8776   High latitude, |b|> 6
mainl.dat     354    75644   Main low reliability sources (1)
mains.dat     354    12179   Sources with only 1 sighting (2)
g159-18.dat   354      133   G159.6-18.5
g159-18l.dat  354       20   G159.6-18.5 low reliability sources (1)
g159-18s.dat  354       19   G159.6-18.5 singletons (2)
g300-16.dat   354       99   G300.2-16.80
g300-16l.dat  354       89   G300.2-16.80 low reliability sources (1)
m101.dat      354        9   M101
m101l.dat     354        6   M101 low reliability sources (1)
m31.dat       354       84   M31
m31l.dat      354       15   M31 low reliability sources (1)
m33.dat       354       51   M33
m33l.dat      354        1   M33 low reliability sources (1)
m83.dat       354       40   M83
m83l.dat      354       12   M83 low reliability sources (1)
bg160.dat     354       44   MSXBG160 and MSXBG161
bg160l.dat    354        7   MSXBG160 and MSXBG161 low reliability sources (1)
bg160s.dat    354        5   MSXBG160 and MSXBG161 singletons (2)
bg239.dat     354       35   MSXBG239
bg239s.dat    354        4   MSXBG239 singletons (2)
ngc253.dat    354       36   NGC253
ngc4631.dat   354        3   NGC4631
ngc4631l.dat  354        2   NGC4631 low reliability sources (1)
ngc4945.dat   354       43   NGC4945
ngc4945l.dat  354       13   NGC4945 low reliability sources (1)
ngc5055.dat   354        2   NGC5055
ngc5055l.dat  354        2   NGC5055 low reliability sources (1)
orion.dat     354      426   Orion
orionl.dat    354       31   Orion low reliability sources (1)
pleiade.dat   354       71   the Pleiades
pleiadel.dat  354       34   the Pleiades low reliability sources (1)
pleiades.dat  354        2   the Pleiades singletons (2)
s263.dat      354       65   S263
s263l.dat     354       33   S263 low reliability sources (1)
s263s.dat     354        3   S263 singletons (2)
smc.dat       354      243   the SMC
smcl.dat      354       64   the SMC low reliability sources (1)
tau.dat       354        8   Taurus (2)
taul.dat      354       20   Taurus low reliability sources (1)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): Low reliability sources have an image-based signal to noise
           ratio between 3 and 5.
Note (2): Singleton sources were extracted from a single scan, but satisfied the 
           flux quality criteria required for catalog acceptance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remarks about the data files:
    The catalog files are in ASCII format with entries as given in Table
    11 of the Explanatory Guide. The columns are space delimited (except
    for the variability, confusion, and measurement reliability flags,
    which are each given as a block), and were written out using the
    following FORTRAN format statement:

 2002 format(a23,1x,f9.4,1x,f9.4,2(1x,f4.1),1x,f5.1,1x,i3,
      6(1x,1pe12.4,i2,1x,0pf5.1,1x,f6.1,1x,f6.1,1x,i3,1x,f5.1),
      1x,6i1,1x,6i1,1x,6i1)


Byte-by-byte Description of file: *.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Bytes Format  Units   Label   Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1-  5  A5     ---     ---     [MSX6C]
   7- 23  A17    ---     MSX6C   Name (based on galactic position)
  26- 33  F8.4   deg     RAdeg   Right Ascension J2000
  36- 43  F8.4   deg     DEdeg   Declination J2000
  45- 48  F4.1   arcsec  ePos    1-sigma in-scan position uncertainty
  50- 53  F4.1   arcsec  xPos    1-sigma cross-scan position uncertainty
  55- 59  F5.1   deg     posPA   in-scan position angle East of North
  61- 63  I3     ---     Nscan   Number of total scan sightings
  65- 76  E12.4  Jy      B1      Flux density in B1 (4.29um) band (1)
      78  I1     ---   q_B1      [0,4] Band B1 quality (2)
  80- 84  F5.1   %     e_B1      ?=-99.0 flux uncertainty 1-sigma
  86- 91  F6.1   ---     B1SNim  Band B1 image extraction SNR (3)
  93- 98  F6.1   ---     B1SNpsx Band B1 point source extractor SNR
 100-102  I3     ---   o_B1      ?=-1 Number of sightings in Band B1
 104-108  F5.1   ---     B1var   Variation in Band B1 measurements
 110-121  E12.4  Jy      B2      Flux density in B2 (4.35um) band (1)
     123  I1     ---   q_B2      [0,4] Band B2 quality (2)
 125-129  F5.1   %     e_B2      ?=-99.0 flux uncertainty 1-sigma
 131-136  F6.1   ---     B2SNim  Band B2 image extraction SNR (3)
 138-143  F6.1   ---     B2SNpsx Band B2 point source extractor SNR
 145-147  I3     ---   o_B2      ?=-1 Number of sightings in Band B2
 149-153  F5.1   ---     B2var   Variation in Band B2 measurements
 155-166  E12.4  Jy      A       Flux density in A (8.28um) band (1)
     168  I1     ---   q_A       [0,4] Band A quality (2)
 170-174  F5.1   %     e_A       ?=-99.0 flux uncertainty 1-sigma
 176-181  F6.1   ---     ASNim   Band A image extraction SNR (3)
 183-188  F6.1   ---     ASNpsx  Band A point source extractor SNR
 190-192  I3     ---   o_A       ?=-1 Number of sightings in Band A
 194-198  F5.1   ---     Avar    Variation in Band A measurements
 200-211  E12.4  Jy      C       Flux density in C (12.13um) band (1)
     213  I1     ---   q_C       [0,4] Band C quality (2)
 215-219  F5.1   %     e_C       ?=-99.0 flux uncertainty 1-sigma
 221-226  F6.1   ---     CSNim   Band C image extraction SNR (3)
 228-233  F6.1   ---     CSNpsx  Band C point source extractor SNR
 235-237  I3     ---   o_C       ?=-1 Number of sightings in Band C
 239-243  F5.1   ---     Cvar    Variation in Band C measurements
 245-256  E12.4  Jy      D       Flux density in D (14.65um) band (1)
     258  I1     ---   q_D       [0,4] Band D quality (2)
 260-264  F5.1   %     e_D       ?=-99.0 flux uncertainty 1-sigma
 266-271  F6.1   ---     DSNim   Band D image extraction SNR (3)
 273-278  F6.1   ---     DSNpsx  Band D point source extractor SNR
 280-282  I3     ---   o_D       ?=-1 Number of sightings in Band D
 284-288  F5.1   ---     Dvar    Variation in Band D measurements
 290-301  E12.4  Jy      E       Flux density in E (21.34um) band (1)
     303  I1     ---   q_E       [0,4] Band E quality (2)
 305-309  F5.1   %     e_E       ?=-99.0 flux uncertainty 1-sigma
 311-316  F6.1   ---     ESNim   Band E image extraction SNR (3)
 318-323  F6.1   ---     ESNpsx  Band E point source extractor SNR
 325-327  I3     ---   o_E       ?=-1 Number of sightings in Band E
 329-333  F5.1   ---     Evar    Variation in Band E measurements
     335  I1     ---     varB1   [0,1] Band B1 variability flag (4)
     336  I1     ---     varB2   [0,1] Band B2 variability flag (4)
     337  I1     ---     varA    [0,1] Band A variability flag (4)
     338  I1     ---     varC    [0,1] Band C variability flag (4)
     339  I1     ---     varD    [0,1] Band D variability flag (4)
     340  I1     ---     varE    [0,1] Band E variability flag (4)
     342  I1     ---     confB1  [0,1] Band B1 confusion flag
     343  I1     ---     confB2  [0,1] Band B2 confusion flag
     344  I1     ---     confA   [0,1] Band A confusion flag
     345  I1     ---     confC   [0,1] Band C confusion flag
     346  I1     ---     confD   [0,1] Band D confusion flag
     347  I1     ---     confE   [0,1] Band E confusion flag
     349  I1     ---     relB1   Band B1 measurement reliability flag (5)
     350  I1     ---     relB2   Band B2 measurement reliability flag (5)
     351  I1     ---     relA    Band A measurement reliability flag (5)
     352  I1     ---     relC    Band C measurement reliability flag (5)
     353  I1     ---     relD    Band D measurement reliability flag (5)
     354  I1     ---     relE    Band E measurement reliability flag (5)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note (1): fluxes in the infrared bands:
     The filter characteristics are (wavelengths in {mu}m):
         ----------------------------
         Band  Center   FWHM Points
         ----------------------------
         B1    4.29     4.22 - 4.36
         B2    4.35     4.24 - 4.45
         A     8.28     6.8  - 10.8
         C    12.13     11.1 - 13.2
         D    14.65     13.5 - 15.9
         E    21.34     18.2 - 25.1
         ----------------------------
     When the number of sightings is zero, the fluxes are set to the
     negative value of the sensitivity limit.

Note (2): The Quality flags in each band are:
     4 = excellent, SNim >= 10.0
     3 = good,      7.0  <= SNim < 10.0
                 or SNim  = -800 and SNpsx >= 10.0
     2 = fair,      5.0  <= SNim < 7.0
                 or SNim  = -800 and 5.0 <= SNpsx < 10.0
     1 = limit,     SNim < 5.0
     0 = not detected

Note (3): SNim can take on a value of -800 if no image plate exists at the
     source location and -999 if the image-based PRF fitting was unable to
     extract a positive irradiance value. In these cases, we default to the
     SNpsx to set the flux quality flag.

Note (4): the variability flag is set to 1 when the variation of the
    measurements over the mission exceeds the 3{sigma} limit. The confusion
    flag is set to 1 if there is a potential confusion issue.

Note (5): a value of 0 means that the measurements fit the point source
   function and that all measurements were of adequate signal-to-noise.
   A value of R=9 is assigned when the source is not detected in the band.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

History:
   The files, were kindy supplied by Dr Kathleen Kraemer in November 2003
================================================================================
(End)                                   Francois Ochsenbein [CDS]    11-Dec-2003
