High-quality NEID Solar Observations (January 2021 - June 2022)

NExScI archives all NEID Solar observations at https://neid.ipac.caltech.edu/search_solar.php.  NEID takes data even during inclement weather, and the official NEID Data Reduction Pipeline does not differentiate between those taken in excellent or poor observing conditions.  This CSV file contains a list of all NEID Solar observations from January 1, 2021 to June 13, 2022, identifies which are currently believed to be of high-quality, and provides diagnostic information used (so users can easily adapting the selection criterion for their needs).

Columns:

filename:  Name of file as provided by NExScI

bjd: Barycentric Julian Date

mask: true for observations considered of high quality; false for observations suspected to be low quality;  See selection criterion specified below

pyrflux_mean: mean flux observed by pyrheliometer during exposure

pyrflux_rms: root mean square deviation from mean of flux observed by pyrheliometer during exposure

expmeter_mean: mean of exposure meter during exposure (summed over wavelength channels)

expmeter_rms:  root mean square deviation from mean of exposure meter during exposure (summed over wavelength channels)

airmass:  airmass of sun a time of observation

hour_angle: hour angle of sun at time of observation

driftfun: value of DRIFTFUN copied from FITS header of filename

wavecal: value of WAVECAL copied from FITS header of filename

expmeter_mean_blue:  mean of exposure meter during exposure (summed over bluest third of wavelength channels)

expmeter_mean_green: mean of exposure meter during exposure (summed over middle third of wavelength channels)

expmeter_mean_red:  mean of exposure meter during exposure (summed over reddest third of wavelength channels)

Selection criteria for setting mask to true:

1.  Require E_VER from fits file matches v1.1.* (Data processed with common minor version of NEID DRP)

2.  Require driftfun  == "dailymodel0" and wavecal == "LFCplusThAr"  (Wavelength calibration used)

3. Start time of exposure lies between 17:30:00 and 22:12:00 (Removes data taken while wavelength calibration is changing rapidly)

4. Exclude dates: October 2, 2021 to October 27, 2021 (due to a cabling issue)

5.  Require airmass <= 2.25  (Exclude data taken at high airmass)

6.  Require mean_pyroflux >= 10^2.95 (Require sufficient flux reaching the pyrheliometer)

7.  Require expmeter_mean >= 1.0e5  (Require sufficient flux reaching the exposure meter)

8.  Require rms_pyroflux <= 0.0035 * mean_pyroflux   (Steady atmospheric transparency)

9.  Require expmeter_rms <=  0.003 * expmeter_mean  (Steady transparency & pointing)

10. Require expmeter_mean >= 150 * pyrflux_mean  (Good pointing)

11. Exclude dates: June 6, 2021, June 16, 2021, July 7, 2021, July 18, 2021, and July 19, 2021 (Dates with poor wavelength calibrations.  This list may be updated upon further analysis.)