APOGEE Targeting Information
Every APOGEE field has many more objects in it than APOGEE can observe. Targeting involves the process of selecting which objects will be observed. An object may have been targeted for spectroscopy for any one of many different purposes, or several purposes at once.
The discussion below takes a holistic look at the how and why of APOGEE targets stars. After a general overview, the discussion is divided into sections for each programmatic science goal. The APOGEE project consists of two generations APOGEE-1 and APOGEE-2, and the second is subdivided in APOGEE-2N and APOGEE-2S, which are being carried out from the Northern and Southern hemispheres, respectively. Throughout this section, we highlight the differences between the target selection as implemented in APOGEE-1, APOGEE-2N, and APOGEE-2S.
We note that these descriptions are for the full programs as designed, and not all of the data for each of the sub-programs may be available in DR16.
Catalogs & References
Both astrometry and photometry are required for targeting. The origin of these measurements is recorded in the targeting files and some of these parameters are maintained in the summary catalogs. In particular, we note the source (SRC
) of any targeting information using a code to relate the name of the catalog. A listing of the catalog codes and links to their related publications is given on Targeting Catalog References.
How a Plate is Made
Each APOGEE plate has 300 fibers split into three types of targets. First, we pick telluric targets to estimate atmospheric absorption lines, then we select our science targets, and then at a third priority, we select our sky targets to estimate unresolved light across the field-of-view. The original list of targets from each type is sorted by priority, which implies that if any pair of fibers are incompatible for plugging the lowest priority fiber is rejected. All potential rejections are checked until we have the desired number of fibers of each type in the plate.
Plates observed with the APOGEE-N spectrograph have a 7 square degree field of view (1.5$^{\circ}$ radius), while those observed with APOGEE-S spectrograph have a 2.8 square degree field of view (0.95$^{\circ}$ radius). After science and calibration targets are selected, we reject fibers based on fiber collisions. A "collision" occurs when two fibers if placed on the plate, would be separated by less than the size of the protective ferrule around each fiber. When collisions occur, the lower priority target is rejected. For the APOGEE-N, the collision radius corresponds to 71.5$''$ while for APOGEE-S it is 56$''$.
In the case of APOGEE-2S, we place acquisition cameras at the center (on-axis) and outer (off-axis) regions of each plate. These cameras are used to calibrate the central location of pointing, alignment, and scale, but imply that the areas covered by those cameras are not available for fiber allocation. Thus, candidates in those positions are also rejected. The on-axis camera covers the central 5.5$'$ of the plate, and the dimensions of the off-axis camera are approximately 10$'$ by 7$'$.
Each field in an APOGEE observing program includes one or multiple sets of stars to be observed individually called designs. They are identified using a design id, and several designs can have stars in common with each other. Still, even a difference of a single star distinguishes different designs, and each will be given a unique design id. A design can be further broken into targets in 1, 2, or 3 distinct cohorts, which are a subset of stars restricted to a specific magnitude range. Cohorts were designed to make optimal use of our time by avoiding observations of bright stars for more time than needed to obtain the goal S/N value. Using cohorts, we can obtain relatively similar total S/N values over a wide range of magnitudes. For this reason, the brightest stars are grouped into short cohorts, medium brightness stars into medium cohorts and the faintest stars are grouped into long cohorts.
APOGEE Target Bitmasks
The target bitmasks used in APOGEE-2 are called APOGEE2_TARGET1
, APOGEE2_TARGET2
, and APOGEE2_TARGET3
. The target bitmasks used for APOGEE-1 targets are APOGEE_TARGET1
and APOGEE_TARGET2
(and an unused one called APOGEE_TARGET3). The right-hand navigation bar has links to bitmask descriptions. The bits within the flags are not exactly aligned between the two generations of APOGEE.
We also include a streamlined bitmask called EXTRATARG
in the summary data files. This allows users to quickly select Main Red Star Sample targets, which have no EXTRATARG
bit set (i.e., EXTRATARG
==0).
More information on how to use Target Bitmasks is on Using Targets/Samples and some examples of using bitmasks with APOGEE data are provided in our Data Access Examples.
Telluric Correction Targets
The APOGEE wavelength range contains several contaminant spectral features from Earth's atmosphere, such as CO$_{2}$, H$_{2}$O, and CH$_{4}$ absorption bands and OH airglow emission lines. The APOGEE reduction pipeline (Nidever et al. 2015) attempts to remove these features using observations of hot stars to characterize the telluric absorption. To make a telluric absorption correction, we would ideally use a perfect, e.g., featureless, blackbody, and, given that hot stars are the best approximation for those, we select the bluest stars in the field. Telluric calibrators are chosen across the full field of view to take into account spatial variations in the telluric absorption. The procedure is as follows: (i) the FOV of each field is divided into equal-area zones, (ii) the bluest star within each zone is selected, and (iii) the bluest stars in the field, regardless of location, are selected. The telluric targets are not dereddened.
These stars have bit 9 set in APOGEE_TARGET2 or APOGEE2_TARGET2.
Sky Targets
ap2dvisit
). The details of how sky observations are used are given in Visit Combination. See the "Observation Files" section of the Data Access page for how to obtain intermediate data products through the SAS.
These "targets" have bit 4 set in APOGEE_TARGET2
or APOGEE2_TARGET2
.
Order of Operations
- Target Class
- Description
- Telluric
- See description here.
- Special
- Targets provided for specific goals, e.g. star clusters or ancillary programs. These are selected based on their input priorirites and then evaluated for fiber collisions.
- Main Red Star Sample
- Following the rules described below.
- MaStar
- APOGEE-2N only. Observations made with MaNGA fiber bundles of calibration stars as well as spectro-photometric standards and sky observations. See MaStar Observing Strategy.
- Sky
- See description here.
During the APOGEE-2N Bright Time Extension programs, the highest priority MaStar targets were allocated fibers at the highest priority on the plate, e.g., before APOGEE telluric selection. Lower priority targets, spectro-photometric calibrations, and skies were assigned in the same order as above. Fields designed in this way have "_btx" appended to their FIELD
name. The MaNGA fiber bundles are larger than APOGEE fibers and have a larger fiber-collision radius of 93.6$''$. Extra care was taken in these fields to ensure that this change did not adversely impact APOGEE-2 scientific priorities, but it could impact the Main Red Star Sample selection function.
Science Targets
APOGEE-2 plates have 250 science fibers while APOGEE-1 plates have 230 science fibers. Our science programs are diverse and include many sub-components of our Galaxy and science goals. We divide the discussion of the sub-programs thematically. In each sub-program, we have components that were observed as a part of APOGEE-1, APOGEE-2N, and APOGEE-2S; these can be identified via the SURVEY
, TELESCOPE
, and PROGRAMNAME
tags. Within programs, we also have specific target selection algorithms that are described with bitmasks.
APOGEE Main Red Star Sample
The APOGEE Main Red Star Sample was designed to select giant-type stars using color-magnitude selection criteria. The sample was designed to be able to map from the observed distributions to the parent sample at confidence, which necessitates a clearly communicated strategy. We describe the general sense of the quantities used for targeting before giving the limits employed for the survey. We also provide brief descriptions of how targeting changed between parts of the survey as described by the specific color-magnitude criteria.
General Considerations
Magnitude Limits
APOGEE_TARGET2
or APOGEE2_TARGET2
targeting flags, where bits 11, 12, and 13 are set for “short”, “medium”, and “long” cohort stars, respectively. The faint magnitude limits of each cohort are chosen such that the faintest stars of each one will have spectra with a final (combined) signal-to-noise of 100 per pixel, which implies the following values:
-
H Magnitude Limits:
- Number of Visits
- H Magnitude Range
- 1
- 7.01 $\lt$ H $\lt$ 11.0
- 3
- 7.01 $\lt$ H $\lt$ 12.2
- 6
- 12.2 $\lt$ H $\lt$ 12.8
- 12
- 12.8 $\lt$ H $\lt$ 13.3
- 24
- 12.8 $\lt$ H $\lt$ 13.8 or 13.3 $\lt$ H $\lt$ 13.8
- 1In some disk cohorts, the bright limit was reduced to H=10; stars selected this way are flagged with
APOGEE2_TARGET2
bit 23.
Stars with $(J-K_{s})_0$ and $H$ within the relevant limits are then randomly sampled within each cohort. Note that the final total magnitude distribution of spectroscopic targets in a field may differ significantly from the underlying magnitude distribution because the former also depends on the number of each type of cohort in the field as well as on the fraction of APOGEE-2's science fibers allotted to each type of cohort.
Dereddened Color Selection
The method used for each star is given by its APOGEE_TARGET1
or APOGEE2_TARGET1
bitmask:
- Bit
- Dereddening Technique
- 3
- RJCE dereddening using Spitzer/IRAC photometry
- 4
- RJCE dereddening using WISE photometry
- 5
- $E(B-V)$ dereddening from Schlegel et al. (1998) (SFD)
- 6
- No dereddening
No reddening corrections were applied for telluric absorption calibrators and stars on certain commissioning plates. Comparison to stellar atmospheric and Galactic stellar population models indicate that within APOGEE's typical magnitude range, a color limit of $(J-K_{s})_{0} \geq 0.5$ mag substantially reduces the dwarf contamination in the final sample.
Main Red Star Sample Science Programs
The specific strategy used in a given field depends on the structural component of the Galaxy being targeted: the bulge, disk, and halo. The classification of a field is loosely related to the field position in Galactic coordinates, but there are other considerations. Here we describe the magnitude and color limits imposed for specific structural components.
Bulge
All APOGEE-1 bulge fields had one visit, with a faint magnitude limit of H=11 mag. Given that the Galactic bulge reaches much higher altitudes in the southern hemisphere, all APOGEE-2 bulge fields were observed as part of APOGEE-2S. These fields have a faint magnitude limit of either $H$=12.2 mag or $H$=12.8 mag. Fields designed to a $H$=12.2 mag depth were scheduled for three total visits following the standard magnitude visits relation. Due to an underestimation of the time that it would require to complete the bulge APOGEE-2S plan, cohorts in $H$=12.8 mag depth bulge fields are not always scheduled for the total number of visits required to reach a signal-to-noise of 100. In any case, a lower limit of signal-to-noise of ~80 is guaranteed for all APOGEE-2S bulge fields given the number of visits assigned to each cohort. All APOGEE-2 designs from bulge fields have the PROGRAMNAME
“bulge”.
Disk
apogee2Design
file for each plate design. For APOGEE-1 targets, disk fields were selected in the Galactic region 24$^{\circ}$ $\leq$ l $\leq$ 240°, |b| $\leq$ 16°, while for APOGEE-2 the disk region corresponds to 20$^{\circ}$ $\leq$ l $\leq$ 340$^{\circ}$, |b| $\leq$ 25$^{\circ}$. APOGEE disk fields had depths of H=12.2, 12.8, and in some cases 13.8 mag.
In some APOGEE-2 disk cohorts, the bright limit was reduced to $H$=10 mag to increase the number of faint, and hopefully distant, disk targets. This reduced magnitude limit was applied for all the fields were we expected to fill both color bins with the reduced magnitude range; stars selected this way are flagged with APOGEE2_TARGET2
bit 23.
In the APOGEE-2N Bright Time Extension, a focused effort was made to target substructure in the outer disk. This occurred in two parts: (1) we explicitly targeted confirmed substructure members from previous work (APOGEE2_TARGET2
bit 7) and (2) we identified substructure candidates using proper motion criteria to remove foreground stars (APOGEE2_TARGET2
bit 8). These fields have PROGRAMNAME
“odisk” and have “_btx” appended to the FIELD. APOGEE-2 designs from disk fields that are not part of APOGEE-2N bright Time Extension have PROGRAMNAME
“disk”, “disk1”, or “disk2”. In APOGEE-2, the "disk1" program is meant to mirror the APOGEE-1 disk footprint, "disk2" are new fields, and "disk" are randomly placed fields.
Halo
Often for the APOGEE-2 halo program, we use Washington M, Washington T$_{2}$, and DDO51 (Wash+D, hereafter) photometry to classify stars as dwarfs or giants prior to their selection as spectroscopic targets, in addition to the reddening and magnitude limits applied for each field (e.g., Majewski et al. 2000). This pre-selection is employed in these particular fields to increase the selection efficiency of giant stars, which have an intrinsically higher dwarf fraction for APOGEE's magnitude range than for fields in the Galactic plane. Stars targeted as photometrically classified giants have bit 7 set in APOGEE_TARGET1
or APOGEE2_TARGET1
and are prioritized over photometrically classified dwarfs which have bit 8 set in APOGEE_TARGET1
or APOGEE2_TARGET1
. All APOGEE-2 designs from halo fields that are not part of APOGEE-2N bright Time Extension have PROGRAMNAME
“halo.”
In APOGEE-2S besides the stars selected using the standard criteria, we explicitly added high priority targets based on spectroscopic and proper motion information, to increase our halo member fraction. Four of these fields are included in DR16 and correspond to 313+29, 294+40, 256+26, and 255-27.
In the APOGEE-2N Bright Time Extension, a focused effort was made to target more distant stars. This occurred in two parts: (1) we explicitly targeted confirmed K-giants from SEGUE (APOGEE2_TARGET2
bit 20) and (2) we identified halo candidates using proper motion criteria that removed foreground stars (APOGEE2_TARGET2
bit 21). Designs from these halo fields will have PROGRAMNAME
“halo_btx” and “_btx” is appended to FIELD
.
Overlap with MaNGA
APOGEE2_TARGET1
bit 15 set. All these designs have the PROGRAMNAME
tag value “manga”. These fields are predominantly around the "North Galactic Cap."
Filler Targets
Star Clusters
- Confirmed Cluster Members: For well-characterized clusters, members are selected by existing abundance, proper motion, and/or radial velocity measurements. Stars observed for this reason have bit 10 set in
APOGEE_TARGET2
orAPOGEE2_TARGET2
. - Cluster Candidates: Cluster candidates are identified solely by their spatial proximity to the central cluster coordinates or by their position relative to the cluster locus in a color-magnitude diagram. Stars can be selected this way either in poorly-studied or unverified clusters as well as when seeking additional members in well-characterized clusters. Stars in this category have bit 9 in
APOGEE_TARGET1
orAPOGEE2_TARGET1
.
Young or embedded stellar clusters have been targeted differently and are flagged with bit 5 of APOGEE2_TARGET3
. Additional clusters have been targeted through Special Programs.
Prior to DR16, a set of clusters that had a large number of confirmed members ($\gt$ 12) were used for for internal calibration of pipeline measurements (see Holtzman et al. 2018 for details). These clusters are:
- Target Clusters:
- Component
- Cluster Names
- Calibration Clusters
- M92, M15, M53, NGC5466, NGC4147, M2, M13, M3, M5, M12, M107, M71, NGC2243, Be 29, NGC2158, M35, NGC2420, NGC188, M67, NGC7789, Pleiades, NGC6819, NGC6791
Globular Clusters
- Known members based on chemical abundances and stellar parameters determined from prior spectroscopic information (
apogee2_target2
=2 and 10) - Candidates selected with radial velocities (
apogee2_target2
=10) - Candidates selected with proper motions (
apogee2_target2
=10) - Photometric candidates
- Targeted Globular Clusters:
- Survey Component
- Cluster Names
- APOGEE-1
- NGC4147, M53, M3, NGC5466, NGC5634, M5, M107, M13, NGC6229, M92, NGC6715, M15, M2
- APOGEE-2N
- M12, M15, M71, M5
- APOGEE-2S
- 47 Tucanae, M10, M12, M22, M4, M55, M68, M79, NGC1851, NGC2808, NGC288, NGC3201, NGC362, NGC6388, NGC6397, NGC6441, NGC6752, Omega Centauri
APOGEE-2 designs belonging to globular cluster fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “cluster_gc”, “cluster_gc1”, “cluster_gc2”, or “cluster_gc3”.
Globular cluster candidates may not be flagged appropriately in DR16.
Open Clusters
The sense of this targeting is similar to that for the Globular clusters, which is:
- Known members based on chemical abundances and stellar parameters determined from prior spectroscopic information
- Candidates selected with radial velocities
- Candidates selected with proper motions
- Photometric candidates
However, photometric candidates are selected such that stars have a common redenning value (see discussion in Frinchaboy et al. 2013). All targets selected in the open cluster program will have apogee2_target1
=9 .
The complete list of Open Clusters targeted in APOGEE is presented below:
- Targeted Open Clusters:
- Survey Component
- Cluster Names
- APOGEE-1
- Berkeley 29 (field 198+08), Pleiades, NGC188 NGC2158, M35, NGC2243, NGC2420, M67, NGC6791, NGC6819, NGC7789
- APOGEE-2N
- NGC188, NGC2243
- APOGEE-2S
- NGC2243, M67, NGC2204, NGC2243, NGC6253, NGC5999, NGC6583, NGC6603, Trumpler20, Collinder 261
All APOGEE-2 designs belonging to open cluster fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “cluster_oc”.
Young Clusters
Cottle et al. 2018 describes the target selection for the APOGEE-2 programs. Cottaar et al. 2014 describes the IN-SYNC program from APOGEE-1.
Note that the ASPCAP pipeline does not include models for pre-main-sequence stars, so the automated synthetic spectral fits are not likely to be meaningful for most of these sources. Sources targeted as part of the young cluster program are flagged with bit 5 of APOGEE2_TARGET3
. All designs belonging to young cluster fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “yso” or "yso_btx."
- Targeted Young Clusters:
- Survey Component
- Cluster Names
- APOGEE-1
- See IN-SYNC Ancillary Program
- APOGEE-2N
- Orion A, Orion B, Orion B1, $\lambda$ Ori, Pleiades, Taurus L1495, Taurus L1521, Taurus L1527, Taurus L1536, Taurus L1551 , Taurus L1517, $\alpha$ Per, NGC2264, Cygnus-X, W34
- APOGEE-2S
- See External Programs
Radial Velocity Programs
Substellar Companions
While data for this program is included in DR16, the observations are not complete.
Stars targeted as part of this class have targeting bit 4 set in APOGEE2_TARGET3
. All designs from fields dedicated for substellar analysis have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “substellar”.
RR Lyrae
APOGEE2_TARGET1
bit 24 set. Additional RRLs have also been observed in suitable fields by both APOGEE-2N and APOGEE-2S. All are indicated by APOGEE2_TARGET1
bit 24.
While data for this program is included in DR16, the observations are not complete.
APOGEE-2S included 10 RR Lyrae fields towards the Galactic bulge in the main survey plan, which corresponded to a total of 25 1-visit designs. However, these visits have been absorbed into the OCIS external program with PROGRAMNAME
“kollmeier_17a”.
Spectroscopic Observations of POI’s
APOKASC
All APOGEE-2 APOKASC targets have APOGEE2_TARGET1 bit 30 set, with giants and dwarfs being further identified with APOGEE2_TARGET1 bits 27 and 28, respectively, if known. All APOGEE-2 designs belonging to APOKASC fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “kep_apokasc”.
Additional details of the APOKASC program can be found in Pinsoneault et al. (2014) for APOGEE-1 and
Pinsoneault et al. (2018) for APOGEE-2.
Stars from APOGEE-1 programs are documented here.
Eclipsing Binaries
All APOGEE-2 targets from the EB program are flagged with bit 1 in APOGEE2_TARGET3
.
K2
- stars known to host planets
- confirmed oscillators in the K2 GAP sample
- red giants targeted by GAP, but not observed by GALAH
- red giants targeted by GAP, but observed by GALAH
- unbiased M dwarf sample
Any remaining fibers followed the criteria for the main red star sample. The stars from this science program have targeting bit 6 set in APOGEE2_TARGET3
. All APOGEE-2 designs belonging to K2 fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “k2” or "k2_btx".
KOI
Each APOGEE-2 KOI field is observed over 18 epochs, with cadencing sufficient to characterize a wide range of orbits. The host+KOI targets can be identified with bit 0 of APOGEE2_TARGET3
, and the control sample targets with bit 2 of APOGEE2_TARGET3. All APOGEE-2 designs belonging to KOI fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “kep_koi”.
TESS N-CVZ
PROGRAMNAME
"cvz_btx."
Targets were selected with a multi-tier priority scheme that prioritized rare targets over more common targets. All targets were selected from the TESS Input Catalog (TIC). The targeting is documented in APOGEE2_TARGET2
as follows:
- bit 27
APOGEE2_CVZ_AS4_OBAF
: OBAF stars - bit 28
APOGEE2_CVZ_AS4_GI
: targets in Guest Investigator programs such as planet hosts, Astroseismic Target List, Subgiants, and Cool-dwarfs - bit 29
APOGEE2_CVZ_AS4_CTL
: Filler CTL star selected from the TESS Input Catalog - bit 30
APOGEE2_CVZ_AS4_GIANT
: Filler Giant selected in a reduced proper motion diagram
The Magellanic Clouds
MC members have targeting bit 22 set in APOGEE2_TARGET1
, while MC photometric candidates have targeting bit 23 set in APOGEE2_TARGET1
. All designs belonging to Magellanic Cloud fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “magclouds”.
Halo Substructures
Stellar Streams
In APOGEE-2N, we targeted five streams: the Triangulum-Andromeda (TriAnd) structure, the tidal tails of the globular cluster Palomar5, the Orphan stream, the GD-1 stream, and the Sagittarius tidal tail.
To observe the TriAnd structure, we selected the 5 fields (TRIAND-1 to TRIAND-5) where the standard halo selection without Wash+D photometry selected most TriAnd candidates from Sheffield et al. (2014) and Chou et al. (2011). Additional targeting in the area spanned by TriAnd occurred in the Bright Time Extension program in the outer disk.
For the Palomar 5, Orphan, GD1, and Sagittarius streams, we used a variety of catalogs to select likely members, using the following priority ranking:
- Stars classified as giants using Wash+D photometry, and photometric candidates using the location in $(J-K_{s})_{0}$ versus $H$ CMD.
- $(J-K_{s})_{0}$ versus $H$ photometric candidates without Wash+D dwarf/giant classification
- Wash+D-classified giants with lower membership probability based on the $(J-K_{s})_{0}$ versus $H$ CMD location.
- Stars without Wash+D dwarf/giant classification and with lower membership probability based in the $(J-K_{s})_{0}$ versus $H$ CMD location.
All stream photometric candidates have targeting bit 19 set in APOGEE2_TARGET1
, and the corresponding Wash+D flag according to their classification. All designs belonging to stream fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “halo_stream”.
Dwarf Spheroidal Satellites
All APOGEE dSph fields are scheduled for at least 24 total visits. In APOGEE-2N the dSph fields contain four 6-visit designs, and each field includes four short cohorts, two medium cohorts, and a single long cohort. In the Bright Time Extension of APOGEE-2N, each dSph field was allocated additional visits. In APOGEE-2S the dSph fields are observed using 24 visits with a single design. Because APOGEE-2S field-of-view is considerably smaller than its northern counterpart, the cohort scheme was not necessary.
The dSph members have targeting bit 20 set in APOGEE2_TARGET1
and dSph photometric candidates have targeting bit 21 set in APOGEE2_TARGET1
. All designs belonging to dSph fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “halo_dsph”.
The Sagittarius System
In APOGEE-1, four fields were designed for the Sagittarius tidal tails: N5634SGR2, SGR1, SgrO2, and SgrO3. In these fields, Sagittarius stream candidates were chosen using the 2MASS M giant selection process described in Majewski et al. (2003). In APOGEE-1, five fields were designed for the core of Sagittarius: M54SGRC1, SGRC3, SGRCMA-04, SGRCMI+02, and SGRCNW+02. Candidates for these fields were chosen using the same method and supplemented with kinematic members based on medium resolution spectroscopy from Frinchaboy et al. (2012).
The APOGEE-2N field, SGRT-1, was targeted similar to that described for the other streams. In APOGEE-2S, four fields were designed for the core of Sagittarius: SGRC-1, M54SGRC-2, SGRC-3, and SGRC-4, and one field to target the tidal tails, SGRT-2.
The Sagittarius core fields have 3-visit short cohorts and a single 6-visit medium cohort, except for M54SGRC-2 that has 6-visit short cohorts and a single 12-visit medium cohort. The highest priority stars in these fields are Sagittarius members based on spectroscopic information. Member stars brighter than $H = 11.3$ mag were assigned to the short cohorts, and stars with $11.3 \leq H \leq 14.0$ mag were assigned to the medium cohorts. For the fields that were not filled with Sagittarius members, we supplemented with 2MASS stars with $(J-K_{s})_{0} \geq 0.5$ mag and using the same magnitude limit for separating short and medium cohort stars. Here, the filler sample was restricted to $H \leq 12.8$ mag.
The Sagittarius tidal field SGRT-2 has 3-visit short cohorts and a single 6-visit medium cohort. The highest priority stars in this field are Sagittarius members based on spectroscopic information and secondary priority are the Wash+D classified giants; all of these stars were assigned to the medium cohort with a magnitude range of $9.0 \leq H \leq 15.3$ mag. Remaining fibers on the plate were filled with 2MASS stars using a color limit of $(J-K_{s})_{0} \geq 0.3$ mag and magnitudes limits of $8.9 \leq H \leq 12.0$ mag for short cohort stars, and $12.0 \leq H \leq 15.3$ mag for medium cohort stars.
All APOGEE Sagittarius stars targeted as members based on Frinchaboy et al. (2012) have targeting bit 26 set in APOGEE_TARGET1
or APOGEE2_TARGET1
and the stars that were selected using Wash+D photometry have the corresponding bit according to their classification. All APOGEE-2S designs belonging to the Sagittarius core fields have PROGRAMNAME
tag value “sgr”, while designs from the Sagittarius tidal field have the PROGRAMNAME
set to “sgr_tidal”.