Stellar Atmospheric Parameters: The Four-Step Program and Gaia's Radial Velocity Spectrometer

Allende Prieto, Carlos
Bibliographical reference

CLASSIFICATION AND DISCOVERY IN LARGE ASTRONOMICAL SURVEYS: Proceedings of the International Conference: ``Classification and Discovery in Large Astronomical Surveys''. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1082, pp. 47-53 (2008).

Advertised on:
12
2008
Number of authors
1
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
The determination of atmospheric parameters is the first and most fundamental step in the analysis of a stellar spectrum. Current and forthcoming surveys involve samples of up to several million stars, and therefore fully automated approaches are required to handle not just data reduction but also the analysis, and in particular the determination of atmospheric parameters. We propose that a successful methodology needs, at the very least, to pass a series of consistency tests that we dub the `four-step program'. This and related issues are discussed in some detail in the context of the massive data set to be obtained with the Radial Velocity Spectrometer onboard Gaia.