Generating background-corrected VPHAS+ HiPS with Montage

TL;DR

The paper addresses background variability in generating background-corrected HiPS from the VPHAS+ survey. It presents a Montage-based workflow that forms 2700 super-tiles, performs cross-tile background correction, and extracts 1024 regular tiles per super-tile to assemble a hierarchical HiPS. A color HiPS is produced by combining five bands (H-alpha, g, r, i, u) using a two-step composition with a masking step, and PNG tiles are generated for visualization. The VPHAS+ HiPS and color HiPS are publicly available through the HiPS network, enabling multi-wavelength studies of the Galactic Plane and providing a pathway to extend the approach to IPHAS and other surveys.

Abstract

We present a technique for creating background-corrected HiPS (Hierarchical Progressive Surveys) from VPHAS+ images using the Montage toolkit. By combining advanced background correction methods and HiPS generation workflows, we produced high-quality color HiPS from the VST Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+). These HiPS have been made publicly available through the HiPS network and serve as an invaluable addition to the HiPS ecosystem for astronomers worldwide.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: VPHAS+ g band HiPS, without background correction
• Figure 2: VPHAS+ g band HiPS, with background correction within each super-tile
• Figure 3: VPHAS+ g band HiPS, with all background corrections applied
• Figure 4: VPHAS+ color HiPS