"The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)," by M.F. Skrutskie
and 30 others, Astronomical Journal, 131(2):
1163-83, February 2006.
[Authors' affiliations: 11 U.S. institutions]
Abstract: "Between 1997 June and 2001 February the Two
Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) collected 25.4 Tbytes of
raw imaging data covering 99.998% of the celestial sphere in the
near-infrared J (1.25 mu m), H(1.65 mu m), and Ks(2.16 mu m) bandpasses.
Observations were conducted from two dedicated 1.3 m diameter telescopes
located at Mount Hopkins, Arizona, and Cerro Tololo, Chile. The 7.8 s of
integration time accumulated for each point on the sky and strict quality
control yielded a 10 sigma point-source detection level of better than
15.8, 15.1, and 14.3 mag at the J, H, and Ks bands, respectively, for
virtually the entire sky. Bright source extractions have 1 sigma
photometric uncertainty of < 0.03 mag and astrometric accuracy of order
100 mas. Calibration offsets between any two points in the sky are <
0.02 mag. The 2MASS All-Sky Data Release includes 4.1 million compressed
FITS images covering the entire sky, 471 million source extractions in a
Point Source Catalog, and 1.6 million objects identified as extended in an
Extended Source Catalog."
This 2006 report from Astronomical Journal was cited
52 times in current journal articles indexed by
Thomson Scientific during November-December 2007. Only one other physics
paper published in the last two years, aside from reviews, collected a
higher number of citations during that two-month period. Prior to the most
recent bimonthly count, citations to the paper have accrued as follows:
SOURCE:
Hot Papers
Database (Included with a subscription to the print newsletter
Science
Watch®, available from the
Research Services
Group of
Thomson
Scientific. Packaged on a CD that is
mailed with each Science Watch issue, the Hot Papers
Database contains data on hundreds of highly cited papers published during
the last two years. User interface permits searching by author,
organization, journal, field, and more. Total citations, as well as
citations accrued during successive bimonthly periods, can be assessed and
graphed. An updated CD containing the most recent bimonthly data is mailed
with every new issue of Science Watch, six times a
year. The CD also includes an electronic version of the Science
Watch issue in HTML format, for personal desktop
access.
Sci-Bytes : 2008 : 03.16.2008 - Hot Paper in Physics