Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA): AUTOZ spectral redshift measurements, confidence and errors

I. K. Baldry*, M. Alpaslan, A. E. Bauer, J. Bland-Hawthorn, S. Brough, M. E. Cluver, S. M. Croom, L. J M Davies, S. P. Driver, M. L P Gunawardhana, B. W. Holwerda, A. M. Hopkins, L. S. Kelvin, J. Liske, A. R. López-Sánchez, J. Loveday, P. Norberg, J. Peacock, A. S G Robotham, E. N. Taylor

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    107 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey has obtained spectra of over 230 000 targets using the Anglo-Australian Telescope. To homogenize the redshift measurements and improve the reliability, a fully automatic redshift code was developed (AUTOZ). The measurements were made using a cross-correlation method for both the absorption-and the emission-line spectra. Large deviations in the high-pass-filtered spectra are partially clipped in order to be robust against uncorrected artefacts and to reduce the weight given to single-line matches. A single figure of merit (FOM) was developed that puts all template matches on to a similar confidence scale. The redshift confidence as a function of the FOM was fitted with a tanh function using a maximum likelihood method applied to repeat observations of targets. The method could be adapted to provide robust automatic redshifts for other large galaxy redshift surveys. For the GAMA survey, there was a substantial improvement in the reliability of assigned redshifts and in the lowering of redshift uncertainties with a median velocity uncertainty of 33 km s-1.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2440-2451
    Number of pages12
    JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Volume441
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2014

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