WMAP Smoothed 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 / file does conform to FITS standard
BITPIX  =                   16 / number of bits per data pixel
NAXIS   =                    0 / number of data axes
EXTEND  =                    T / FITS dataset may contain extensions
COMMENT   FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format is defined in 'Astronomy
COMMENT   and Astrophysics', volume 376, page 359; bibcode: 2001A&A...376..359H
DATE    = '2008-01-02T18:33:17' /file creation date (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss UT)
TELESCOP= 'MAP     '           / Microwave Anisotropy Probe
OBJECT  = 'ALL-SKY '           / Portion of sky given
EQUINOX =               2000.0 / Equinox of coordinates
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 It has been smoothed to a 1 deg. field of view.
COMMENT Five years of data went into the map.
REFERENC= 'MAP Explanatory Supplement'
PIXTYPE = 'HEALPIX '           / Pixel algorithm
ORDERING= 'NESTED  '           / Ordering scheme
NSIDE   =                  512 / Resolution parameter
NPIX    =              3145728 / # of pixels
FIRSTPIX=                    0 / First pixel (0 based)
LASTPIX =              3145727 / Last pixel (0 based)
TELESCOP= 'WMAP    '           /Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
OBJECT  = 'ALL-SKY '           / Portion of sky given
EQUINOX =               2000.0 / Equinox of coordinates
REFERENC= 'WMAP Explanatory Supplement:  http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/' /
PIXTYPE = 'HEALPIX '           / Pixel algorithm
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)
STOKES  = 'IQU     '           /
FREQ    = 'K band  '           /Frequency band
RELEASE = 'DR3     '           /WMAP Release
RESOLUTN=                    9 /Resolution Index
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,thermodynamic'   / physical unit of field
TTYPE2  = 'Q_POLARISATION '    / label for field   2
TFORM2  = 'E       '           / data format of field: 4-byte REAL
TUNIT2  = 'mK,thermodynamic'   / physical unit of field
TTYPE3  = 'U_POLARISATION '    /
TFORM3  = 'E       '           /
TUNIT3  = 'mK,thermodynamic'   /
TTYPE4  = 'N_OBS   '           /
TFORM4  = 'E       '           /
TUNIT4  = 'counts  '           /
EXTNAME = 'Stokes Maps'        /
DATE    = '2007-12-13T10:47:36' /
PIXTYPE = 'HEALPIX '           /
ORDERING= 'NESTED  '           /
NSIDE   =                  512 /
FIRSTPIX=                    0 /
LASTPIX =              3145727 /
END

More information concerning the contents of this file is available.