RAW SCAN TABLE DESCRIPTION



COLUMN NAME FORMAT NULLS COMMENT
date date no The observation reference date for this source expressed in ISO standard format. This is the UT day value at sunrise for the night on which the source was observed. Because it is possible for the UT day to change during a night of observations, the actual UT date for a source measurement can differ from date by one day. 
day_no smallint no Small integer alias for date.  Increases sequentially from March 1, 1997.  Day_no is encoded in the raw scan data file names.
hemis char(1) no Hemisphere code for the 2MASS Observatory from which this scan was observed.
  • "n" = North/Mt. Hopkins
  • "s" = South/CTIO
scan smallint no The nightly scan number in which the source was detected.   Is only unique within a specific date and hemisphere.
tile integer no Also known as strip_id or tile_id.   Unique identifier for (planned) position of scan on sky.   This column is useful for identification of multiply observed regions of the sky, particularly the calibration scans. The tile definition table is given in the Explanatory Supplement.
s_dir char(1) no Scan direction.
  • "n" = scan starts at south end and proceeds to the north end.
  • "s" = scan starts at north end and proceeds to the south end.
s_type char(3) no Scan type.  
  • "sci"  = 6 degree long science data scan.
  • "cal"  = 1 degree long calibration data scan.
  • "flt"    = Scan taken during twilight used to flat field the NICMOS arrays.
  • "dar" = Dark scan taken with cold shutter in front of arrays.
  • "lsc"  = 6 degree long science data scan taken with 6X the normal integration time.
  • "tst"   = Test scan, frequently used for determining focus settings.
  • "lca"  = Calibration scan taken with 6X the normal r2-r1 integration time.
  • "lda"  = Dark scan taken with 6X the normal r2-r1 integration time.
frames smallint no Number of 256x256 pixel image frame pairs in scan.  Each frame pair consists of an r1 image and an r2 image stored in sequence in the .rdo files.
as_cat char(1) no All-sky catalog science (6 degree long) scan.
  • "y" = Scan is present in the 2MASS all-sky catalog
  • "n" = Scan is not in 2MASS all-sky catalog.   However it may be a cal scan used in calibrating the science scans in the catalog.
tape_label char(8) no Label on DLT tape where data are located.
disk_label char(3) yes Label on hard disk where data are located.