The SPHEREx Image and Spectrophotometry Processing Pipeline
Rachel Akeson, Gregory P. Dubois-Felsmann, Brendan P. Crill, Andreas L. Faisst, Tamim Fatahi, Candice M. Fazar, Tatiana Goldina, Daniel C. Masters, Christina Nelson, Roberta Paladini, Harry I. Teplitz, Gabriela Torrini, Phani Velicheti, Matthew L. N. Ashby, Dan Avner, Yoonsoo P. Bach, James J. Bock, Sean Bruton, Sean A. Bryan, Tzu-Ching Chang, Shuang-Shuang Chen, Ari J. Cukierman, O. Dore, C. Darren Dowell, Spencer Everett, Richard M. Feder, Zhaoyu Huai, Howard Hui, Woong-Seob Jeong, Young-Soo Jo, Phil M. Korngut, Yuna G. Kwon, Bomee Lee, Gary J. Melnick, Giulia Murgia, Chi H. Nguyen, Milad Pourrahmani, Zafar Rustamkulov, Volker Tolls, Pao-Yu Wang, Yujin Yang, Michael Zemcov
TL;DR
The SPHEREx pipeline addresses the conversion of onboard, raw spacecraft data into science-ready products by a multi-level, modular processing framework built on Rubin Butler middleware. It details Level 0–3 processing, calibration, and data-product generation (spectral images, all-sky data cubes, and a high-reliability source catalog) with Level 4 science outputs developed by the SPHEREx Science Team. The system emphasizes data ingestion, calibration, and provenance, delivering calibrated, spectro-photometric data to IRSA with planned yearly reprocessings and forthcoming enhancements in astrometry, PSF modeling, and transient masking. Operationally, Level 1–2 run at IPAC NMDC and Level 3 runs at TACC, enabling scalable, HPC-enabled photometric analysis and broad community access to the SPHEREx datasets for Solar System to high-redshift galaxy studies.
Abstract
In this paper, we describe the SPHEREx image and spectrophotometry data processing pipeline, an infrastructure and software system designed to produce calibrated spectral images and photometric measurements for NASA's SPHEREx mission. SPHEREx is carrying out a series of four all-sky spectrophotometric surveys at 6.15 arcsecond resolution in 102 spectral channels spanning 0.75 to 5 microns. The pipeline which will deliver the flux- and wavelength-calibrated data products deriving from these surveys has been developed and is operated by the SPHEREx Science Data Center at Caltech/IPAC in collaboration with the SPHEREx Science Team. Here we describe the framework and modules used in the pipeline, along with the data products, which are available at the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive.