GPIPS DR4: 13.8 Million Unique Stars with Infrared Polarimetry

The Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS) covers 76 square degrees of the Galactic plane midplane. This unique star catalog, published by Clemens et al. in 2020, consolidates photometry, polarimetry, and matching stellar data for 13,861,329 stars observed using the Mimir instrument on the 1.8 m Perkins telescope.

Use Cases

• Mapping plane-of-the-sky magnetic field orientations in the Galactic plane based on H-band linear polarimetry.
• Analyzing correlations between stellar properties and polarization data to study interstellar dust and cloud structure.
• Investigating magnetic field morphology in diffuse and denser atomic and molecular clouds within the surveyed region.

Strengths

• Contains entries for 13,861,329 unique stars, providing a large sample for statistical analysis.
• Covers a significant 76 square degree area of the first Galactic quadrant (18<l<56 deg, -1<b<+1 deg).
• Consolidates multiple data types (photometry, polarimetry, matching stellar data) for each star.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Observations from the Mimir instrument on the 1.8 m Perkins telescope, consisting of 3,234 overlapping 10x10 arcmin fields.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:27:34.696926; freshness should be verified.

Geography

First Galactic quadrant midplane, 18<l<56 deg and -1<b<+1 deg.