CFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry

Here we present the results of various approaches to measure accurate colours and photometric redshifts (photo-z's) from wide-field imaging data. We use data from the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) which have been re- processed by the CFHT Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) team i...

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Main Authors: Hildebrandt, H, Erben, T, Kuijken, K, Waerbeke, L, Heymans, C, Coupon, J, Benjamin, J, Bonnett, C, Fu, L, Hoekstra, H, Kitching, T, Mellier, Y, Miller, L, Velander, M, Hudson, M, Rowe, B, Schrabback, T, Semboloni, E, Benitez, N
格式: Journal article
出版: 2011
_version_ 1826263524544872448
author Hildebrandt, H
Erben, T
Kuijken, K
Waerbeke, L
Heymans, C
Coupon, J
Benjamin, J
Bonnett, C
Fu, L
Hoekstra, H
Kitching, T
Mellier, Y
Miller, L
Velander, M
Hudson, M
Rowe, B
Schrabback, T
Semboloni, E
Benitez, N
author_facet Hildebrandt, H
Erben, T
Kuijken, K
Waerbeke, L
Heymans, C
Coupon, J
Benjamin, J
Bonnett, C
Fu, L
Hoekstra, H
Kitching, T
Mellier, Y
Miller, L
Velander, M
Hudson, M
Rowe, B
Schrabback, T
Semboloni, E
Benitez, N
author_sort Hildebrandt, H
collection OXFORD
description Here we present the results of various approaches to measure accurate colours and photometric redshifts (photo-z's) from wide-field imaging data. We use data from the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) which have been re- processed by the CFHT Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) team in order to carry out a number of weak gravitational lensing studies. An emphasis is put on the correction of systematic effects in the photo-z's arising from the different Point Spread Functions (PSF) in the five optical bands. Different ways of correcting these effects are discussed and the resulting photo-z accuracies are quantified by comparing the photo-z's to large spectroscopic redshift (spec-z) data sets. Careful homogenisation of the PSF between bands leads to increased overall accuracy of photo-z's. The gain is particularly pronounced at fainter magnitudes where galaxies are smaller and flux measurements are affected more by PSF-effects. We also study possible re- calibrations of the photometric zeropoints (ZPs) with the help of galaxies with known spec-z's. We find that if PSF-effects are properly taken into account, a re-calibration of the ZPs becomes much less important suggesting that previous such re-calibrations described in the literature could in fact be mostly corrections for PSF-effects rather than corrections for real inaccuracies in the ZPs. The implications of this finding for future surveys like KiDS, DES, LSST, or Euclid are mixed. On the one hand, ZP re-calibrations with spec-z's might not be as accurate as previously thought. On the other hand, careful PSF homogenisation might provide a way out and yield accurate, homogeneous photometry without the need for full spectroscopic coverage. This is the first paper in a series describing the technical aspects of CFHTLenS. (abridged)
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spelling oxford-uuid:24a576b7-1e0c-498c-accb-afaf7cdbcd5b2022-03-26T11:51:15ZCFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometryJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:24a576b7-1e0c-498c-accb-afaf7cdbcd5bSymplectic Elements at Oxford2011Hildebrandt, HErben, TKuijken, KWaerbeke, LHeymans, CCoupon, JBenjamin, JBonnett, CFu, LHoekstra, HKitching, TMellier, YMiller, LVelander, MHudson, MRowe, BSchrabback, TSemboloni, EBenitez, NHere we present the results of various approaches to measure accurate colours and photometric redshifts (photo-z's) from wide-field imaging data. We use data from the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) which have been re- processed by the CFHT Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) team in order to carry out a number of weak gravitational lensing studies. An emphasis is put on the correction of systematic effects in the photo-z's arising from the different Point Spread Functions (PSF) in the five optical bands. Different ways of correcting these effects are discussed and the resulting photo-z accuracies are quantified by comparing the photo-z's to large spectroscopic redshift (spec-z) data sets. Careful homogenisation of the PSF between bands leads to increased overall accuracy of photo-z's. The gain is particularly pronounced at fainter magnitudes where galaxies are smaller and flux measurements are affected more by PSF-effects. We also study possible re- calibrations of the photometric zeropoints (ZPs) with the help of galaxies with known spec-z's. We find that if PSF-effects are properly taken into account, a re-calibration of the ZPs becomes much less important suggesting that previous such re-calibrations described in the literature could in fact be mostly corrections for PSF-effects rather than corrections for real inaccuracies in the ZPs. The implications of this finding for future surveys like KiDS, DES, LSST, or Euclid are mixed. On the one hand, ZP re-calibrations with spec-z's might not be as accurate as previously thought. On the other hand, careful PSF homogenisation might provide a way out and yield accurate, homogeneous photometry without the need for full spectroscopic coverage. This is the first paper in a series describing the technical aspects of CFHTLenS. (abridged)
spellingShingle Hildebrandt, H
Erben, T
Kuijken, K
Waerbeke, L
Heymans, C
Coupon, J
Benjamin, J
Bonnett, C
Fu, L
Hoekstra, H
Kitching, T
Mellier, Y
Miller, L
Velander, M
Hudson, M
Rowe, B
Schrabback, T
Semboloni, E
Benitez, N
CFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
title CFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
title_full CFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
title_fullStr CFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
title_full_unstemmed CFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
title_short CFHTLenS: Improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
title_sort cfhtlens improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
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