Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS) II. Approach to data reduction and products for line-rich broadband (sub)millimeter spectra
Abstract
Studying the chemical composition of the warm gas surrounding embedded solar-type protostars is one of the areas for which the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is particularly well suited. Recently, the ALMA Large Program ``Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys'' (COMPASS) carried out an observing campaign of a sample of 11 protostellar regions to investigate the chemical impact of their environments and evolutionary stages. The aim of this paper is to provide the observational and procedural information necessary for the community to understand the analysis presented in forthcoming scientific papers by the COMPASS collaboration, and to enable archival research using the data products provided by our team and the ALMA Science Archive. This paper describes the technical setup of the observations, and it outlines the data-processing pipeline and primary data products from this initiative. The Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) was used for initial calibration following the standard ALMA Pipeline, and then IMAGER was used for self-calibration and imaging. We describe post-processing done with Python to achieve favorable continuum subtraction, correct for the primary beam response, and extract spectra. We discuss our strategy for mitigating data challenges, including those related to data volume and continuum subtraction for spectral line analysis. The incorporation of IMAGER in our workflow was advantageous in terms of the computing efficiency which allowed us to benchmark several imaging parameters and techniques; we also demonstrate that the imaging outcomes using IMAGER or CASA are scientifically comparable. Numerous data products are generated for the program, including image cubes for the 36 spectral windows targeting each source, extracted spectra, and continuum images.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{plunkett2026complex,
title = {{Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS) II. Approach to data reduction and products for line-rich broadband (sub)millimeter spectra}},
author = {Adele L. Plunkett and Sébastien Maret and Daniel Harsono and Jes K. Jørgensen and Audrey Coutens and Maria N. Drozdovskaya and Jeong-Eun Lee and Arnaud Belloche and Fernando Cruz-Sáenz de Miera and Merel L. R. van 't Hoff and Jae-Hong Jeong and Chul-Hwan Kim and Ágnes Kóspál and Martine Lützen and Brett A. McGuire and Pooneh Nazari and Silvia Spezzano and Zoie Telkamp and Yao-Lun Yang and Hyeong-Sik Yun and Audrey Andreu and Jennifer Bergner and Judit Ferrer Asensio and Niels F. W. Ligterink and Yuxin Lin and Sheng-Yuan Liu and Pierre Marchand and Mihika Rao and Shaoshan Zeng},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.08217},
eprint = {2610.08217},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08217},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS) II. Approach to data reduction and products for line-rich broadband (sub)millimeter spectra
AU - Adele L. Plunkett
AU - Sébastien Maret
AU - Daniel Harsono
AU - Jes K. Jørgensen
AU - Audrey Coutens
AU - Maria N. Drozdovskaya
AU - Jeong-Eun Lee
AU - Arnaud Belloche
AU - Fernando Cruz-Sáenz de Miera
AU - Merel L. R. van 't Hoff
AU - Jae-Hong Jeong
AU - Chul-Hwan Kim
AU - Ágnes Kóspál
AU - Martine Lützen
AU - Brett A. McGuire
AU - Pooneh Nazari
AU - Silvia Spezzano
AU - Zoie Telkamp
AU - Yao-Lun Yang
AU - Hyeong-Sik Yun
AU - Audrey Andreu
AU - Jennifer Bergner
AU - Judit Ferrer Asensio
AU - Niels F. W. Ligterink
AU - Yuxin Lin
AU - Sheng-Yuan Liu
AU - Pierre Marchand
AU - Mihika Rao
AU - Shaoshan Zeng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.08217
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08217
AB - Studying the chemical composition of the warm gas surrounding embedded solar-type protostars is one of the areas for which the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is particularly well suited. Recently, the ALMA Large Program ``Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys'' (COMPASS) carried out an observing campaign of a sample of 11 protostellar regions to investigate the chemical impact of their environments and evolutionary stages. The aim of this paper is to provide the observational and procedural information necessary for the community to understand the analysis presented in forthcoming scientific papers by the COMPASS collaboration, and to enable archival research using the data products provided by our team and the ALMA Science Archive. This paper describes the technical setup of the observations, and it outlines the data-processing pipeline and primary data products from this initiative. The Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) was used for initial calibration following the standard ALMA Pipeline, and then IMAGER was used for self-calibration and imaging. We describe post-processing done with Python to achieve favorable continuum subtraction, correct for the primary beam response, and extract spectra. We discuss our strategy for mitigating data challenges, including those related to data volume and continuum subtraction for spectral line analysis. The incorporation of IMAGER in our workflow was advantageous in terms of the computing efficiency which allowed us to benchmark several imaging parameters and techniques; we also demonstrate that the imaging outcomes using IMAGER or CASA are scientifically comparable. Numerous data products are generated for the program, including image cubes for the 36 spectral windows targeting each source, extracted spectra, and continuum images.
ER -