SAGE-SMC: Infrared Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud Across Three Epochs

Spitzer Space Telescope infrared observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud captured at three distinct epochs to remove imaging artifacts and constrain stellar variability. The data archive, produced by NASA's SAGE-SMC project, contains source fluxes with fewer nulled wavelengths than the project's official catalog, though with greater associated uncertainty. The archive excludes sources within a 0.5" radius, while the catalog uses a 2" radius for neighbor culling.

Use Cases

• Detecting and analyzing variable evolved stars and young stellar objects based on multi-epoch infrared observations.
• Removing striping and column/row artifacts from infrared image data based on the 90-degree roll angle between observation epochs.
• Studying galaxy evolution in a tidally-disrupted, low-metallicity environment based on the survey's stated scientific goal.

Strengths

• Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope's IRAC and MIPS instruments.
• Data from three distinct epochs (Epochs 0, 1, and 2) separated by 3 and 9 months.
• Archive contains more source fluxes and some more sources than the project's official catalog.

Limitations

• Additional sources in the archive have more uncertainty associated with them compared to the catalog.
• 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

Infrared observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope's SAGE-SMC legacy program.

Time Range

Observations from Cycle 4 and the earlier S3MC pathfinder survey (Epoch 0).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 16:38:22.987275; freshness should be verified.

Geography

The Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy satellite of the Milky Way.