The Sixth Data Release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). I. Survey Description, Spectra, and Radial Velocities
Matthias Steinmetz, Gal Matijevič, Harry Enke, Tomaž Zwitter, Guillaume Guiglion, Paul J. McMillan, Georges Kordopatis, Marica Valentini, Cristina Chiappini, Luca Casagrande, Jennifer Wojno, Borja Anguiano, Olivier Bienaymé, Albert Bijaoui, James Binney, Donna Burton, Paul Cass, Patrick de Laverny, Kristin Fiegert, Kenneth Freeman, Jon P. Fulbright, Brad K. Gibson, Gerard Gilmore, Eva K. Grebel, Amina Helmi, Andrea Kunder, Ulisse Munari, Julio F. Navarro, Quentin Parker, Gregory R. Ruchti, Alejandra Recio-Blanco, Warren Reid, George M. Seabroke, Alessandro Siviero, Arnaud Siebert, Milorad Stupar, Fred Watson, Mary E. K. Williams, Rosemary F. G. Wyse, Friedrich Anders, Teresa Antoja, Danijela Birko, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Diego Bossini, Rafael A. García, Ismael Carrillo, William J. Chaplin, Yvonne Elsworth, Benoit Famaey, Ortwin Gerhard, Paula Jofre, Andreas Just, Savita Mathur, Andrea Miglio, Ivan Minchev, Giacomo Monari, Benoit Mosser, Andreas Ritter, Thaise S. Rodrigues, Ralf-Dieter Scholz, Sanjib Sharma, Kseniia Sysoliatina
Abstract
Abstract The Radial Velocity Experiment (R ave ) is a magnitude-limited (9 < I < 12) spectroscopic survey of Galactic stars randomly selected in Earth’s southern hemisphere. The R ave medium-resolution spectra ( R ∼ 7500) cover the Ca-triplet region (8410–8795 Å). The sixth and final data release (DR6) is based on 518,387 observations of 451,783 unique stars. R ave observations were taken between 2003 April 12 and 2013 April 4. Here we present the genesis, setup, and data reduction of R ave as well as wavelength-calibrated and flux-normalized spectra and error spectra for all observations in R ave DR6. Furthermore, we present derived spectral classification and radial velocities for the R ave targets, complemented by cross-matches with Gaia DR2 and other relevant catalogs. A comparison between internal error estimates, variances derived from stars with more than one observing epoch, and a comparison with radial velocities of Gaia DR2 reveals consistently that 68% of the objects have a velocity accuracy better than 1.4 km s –1 , while 95% of the objects have radial velocities better than 4.0 km s –1 . Stellar atmospheric parameters, abundances and distances are presented in a subsequent publication. The data can be accessed via the R ave website ( http://rave-survey.org ) or the Vizier database.