The 1.28 GHz MeerKAT Galactic Center Mosaic

Heywood I, Rammala I, Camilo F, Cotton W, Yusef-Zadeh F, Abbott T, Adam R, Adams G, Aldera M, Asad K, Bauermeister E, Bennett T, Bester H, Bode D, Brederode L, Buchner S, Burger J, Cheetham T, de Villiers M, Dikgale-Mahlakoana A, du Toit L, Esterhuyse S, Fanaroff B, February S, Fourie D, Frank B, Gamatham R, Geyer M, Goedhart S, Gouws M, Gumede S, Hlakola M, Hokwana A, Hoosen S, Horrell J, Isaacson A, Jozsa G, Jonas J, Joubert A, Julie R, Kapp F, Kenyon J, Kotze P, Kriek N, Kriel H, Krishnan V, Lehmensiek R, Liebenberg D, Lord R, Lunsky B, Madisa K, Magnus L, Mahgoub O, Makhaba O, Makhathini S, Malan J, Manley J, Marais S, Martens A, Mauch T, Merry B, Millenaar R, Mnyandu N, Mokone O, Monama T, Mphego M, New W, Ngcebetsha B, Ngoasheng K, Ockards M, Oozeer N, Otto A, Passmoor S, Patel A, Peens-Hough A, Perkins S, Ramaila A, Ramanujam N, Ramudzuli Z, Ratcliffe S, Robyntjies A, Salie S, Sambu N, Schollar C, Schwartz R, Serylak M, Siebrits R, Sirothia S, Slabber M, Smirnov O, Sofeya L, Gumede S, Taljaard B, Tasse C, Tiplady A, Toruvanda O, Twum S, van Balla T, van der Byl A, van der Merwe C, Van Tonder V, Van Wyk R, Venter A, Venter M, Wallace B, Welz M, Williams L, Xaia B (2022): The 1.28 GHz MeerKAT Galactic Center Mosaic, 1.0, South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, https://doi.org/10.48479/fyst-hj47

Initial image data release for “The 1.28 GHz MeerKAT Galactic Center Mosaic”, Heywood et al. (2022) (arXiv, in press). The mosaic has been formed from the innermost 20 pointings of the MeerKAT Galactic centre survey, totalling 144 hours of integration time. The data have been consistently processed to deliver an angular resolution of 4" over 6.5 square degrees. A lower (8") angular resolution spectral index mosaic and associated error map are also provided.

If you make use of these data products please cite Heywood et al. (2022), and include the standard MeerKAT acknowledgement: "The MeerKAT telescope is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation."

Download Description Size
MeerKAT_Galactic_Centre_1284MHz-StokesI.fits MeerKAT total intensity mosaic of the Galactic centre region at 1.284 GHz. The image covers 6.5 square degrees with an angular resolution of 4”.813MB
MeerKAT_Galactic_Centre_alpha.fits Spectral index mosaic of the same region formed from imaging in 16 sub-bands with ~8” common resolution and fitting for the spectral index of each sightline through the cube. The pixels have been masked where the error in the fit exceeds 0.5.1.1GB
MeerKAT_Galactic_Centre_alpha-error.fits This image has the same coverage as the spectral index mosaic, but contains estimates of the error in the fit for spectral index for each non-blank pixel.1.1GB

This data release was issued on 10 January 2022