WMAP I,Q,U Maps Per Frequency Band Five Year FITS Header Information

The maps are contained in a binary table TEMPERATURE, Q_POLARISATION, U_POLARISATION, and N_OBS columns. A second table supplies the noise covariance matrices of the polarization maps.

Primary Header

SIMPLE  =                    T /FITS format
BITPIX  =                   16 /Dummy primary header
NAXIS   =                    0 /No data is associated with this header
EXTEND  =                    T /Extensions may (will!) be present
RESOLUTN=                    9 /Resolution Index
PIXTYPE = 'HEALPIX '           /Pixel algorigthm
ORDERING= 'NESTED  '           /Ordering scheme
NSIDE   =                  512 /Resolution Parameter
NPIX    =              3145728 /Number of pixels
FIRSTPIX=                    0 /First pixel (0 based)
LASTPIX =              3145727 /Last pixel (0 based)
COMMENT This file contains WMAP Intensity and Polarization (I, Q, and U)
COMMENT Res 9 skymaps for the frequency band indicated by
COMMENT the FREQ keyword.
COMMENT Five years of data went into the map.
DATE    = '2008-01-02T18:31:33' /file creation date (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss UT)
TELESCOP= 'WMAP    '           /Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
REFERENC= 'WMAP Explanatory Supplement:  http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/' /
STOKES  = 'IQU     '           /
FREQ    = 'K band  '           /Frequency band
RELEASE = 'DR3     '           /WMAP Release
END

Temperature and Polarization Map Table

XTENSION= 'BINTABLE'           /binary table extension
BITPIX  =                    8 /8-bit bytes
NAXIS   =                    2 /2-dimensional binary table
NAXIS1  =                   16 /width of table in bytes
NAXIS2  =              3145728 /number of rows in table
PCOUNT  =                    0 /size of special data area
GCOUNT  =                    1 /one data group (required keyword)
TFIELDS =                    4 /number of fields in each row
TTYPE1  = 'TEMPERATURE '       /label for field 1
TFORM1  = 'E       '           /data format of field: 4-byte REAL
TUNIT1  = 'mK      '           /physical unit of field 1
TTYPE2  = 'Q_POLARISATION '    /label for field 2
TFORM2  = 'E       '           /data format of field: 4-byte REAL
TUNIT2  = 'mK,thermodynamic'   /physical unit of field 2
TTYPE3  = 'U_POLARISATION '    /
TFORM3  = 'E       '           /
TUNIT3  = 'mK,thermodynamic'   /
TTYPE4  = 'N_OBS   '           /
TFORM4  = 'E       '           /
TUNIT4  = 'counts  '           /
EXTNAME = 'Stokes Maps'        /
DATE    =                    0 /
PIXTYPE = 'HEALPIX '           /
ORDERING= 'NESTED  '           /
NSIDE   =                  512 /
FIRSTPIX=                    0 /
LASTPIX =              3145727 /
END

Noise Covariance Table

XTENSION= 'BINTABLE'           /binary table extension
BITPIX  =                    8 /8-bit bytes
NAXIS   =                    2 /2-dimensional binary table
NAXIS1  =                   16 /width of table in bytes
NAXIS2  =              3145728 /number of rows in table
PCOUNT  =                    0 /size of special data area
GCOUNT  =                    1 /one data group (required keyword)
TFIELDS =                    4 /number of fields in each row
TTYPE1  = 'N_OBS   '           /label for field 1
TFORM1  = 'E       '           /data format of field: 4-byte REAL
TUNIT1  = 'counts  '           /physical unit of field 1
TTYPE2  = 'QQ      '           /label for field 2
TFORM2  = 'E       '           /data format of field: 4-byte REAL
TUNIT2  = 'counts  '           /physical unit of field 2
TTYPE3  = 'QU      '           /
TFORM3  = 'E       '           /
TUNIT3  = 'counts  '           /
TTYPE4  = 'UU      '           /
TFORM4  = 'E       '           /
TUNIT4  = 'counts  '           /
EXTNAME = 'Weight Arrays'      /
DATE    =                    0 /
PIXTYPE = 'HEALPIX '           /
ORDERING= 'NESTED  '           /
NSIDE   =                  512 /
FIRSTPIX=                    0 /
LASTPIX =              3145727 /
COMMENT Weight arrays must be divided by a scaling factor sigma_0^2
COMMENT to provide a weight array in physical units (mK^-2).  See WMAP
COMMENT Explanatory Supplement.
END

More information concerning the contents of this file is available.