DKIST Data Set Caveats
General Caveats
Please note that there are limitations inherent to the Operations Commissioning Phase (shared-risk environment). During early operations, we continue to learn more about the instruments and the environment in which they operate, and we have encountered previously unknown technical limitations. For ViSP, for example, some of these limitations affected the frame rate and, as a result, the time spent on an individual slit position and the map cadences that ViSP can achieve.
In general, summit science operations staff (i.e., resident scientists and science operations specialists) strive to match the requests of any observing proposal as best they can, but there are no guarantees that, for example, the lengths of observations, cadences, or the requested seeing will be 100% consistent with the proposal. If you do have any questions about (summit) science operations and the execution of your observing program(s), you may also contact the DKIST Program Scientist for Operations atritschler@nso.edu or use the DKIST Help Desk.
A Note on TargetType
As described in the DKIST Data Center Archive Search Manual, searches by TargetType do not work for observations taken before 2023/08/28 because all TargetTypes (defined by the OBJECT keyword) are listed as “unknown”. Subsequent observation had the OBJECT keyword correctly defined.
It is not recommended to use Cycle 1 data for science analysis. Although there are some good datasets available from Cycle 1, substantial improvements to the data acquisition and calibration routines have since been made. For ease of scientific use, we recommend that users perform their analyses with data from Cycle 2 onwards.
Instrument Caveat Pages
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions.
Alisdair Davey
DKIST Data Center Scientist
adavey@nso.edu
Alexandra Tritschler
DKIST Program Scientist for Operations
atritschler@nso.edu