THE NINTH DATA RELEASE OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY: FIRST SPECTROSCOPIC DATA FROM THE SDSS-III BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY

ABSTRACT The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) presents the first spectroscopic data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This ninth data release (DR9) of the SDSS project includes 535,995 new galaxy spectra (median z ∼ 0.52), 102,100 new quasar spectra (median z ∼ 2.32), and 90,897 new stellar spectra, along with the data presented in previous data releases. These spectra were obtained with the new BOSS spectrograph and were taken between 2009 December and 2011 July. In addition, the stellar parameters pipeline, which determines radial velocities, surface temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities of stars, has been updated and refined with improvements in temperature…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• AP
  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• YU
  Yale University
• VU
  Vanderbilt University
• PU
  Princeton University
• OS
  Ohio State University
• HU
  Harvard University
• UO
  University of Washington
• JH
  Johns Hopkins University
• CM
  Carnegie Mellon University
• UO
  University of Portsmouth
• NM
  New Mexico State University
• YU
  York University
• OO
  Office of Science
• CO
  College of Engineering, Michigan State University
• SA
  Science and Technology Facilities Council

  Awards: ST/H002774/1, ST/H00243X/1, ST/I001204/1, ST/J001538/1, ST/I505905/1
• BN
  Brookhaven National Laboratory
• LB
  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory