JWST Planned Observations Available in MAST Portal

GTO and DD-ERS programs that have been accepted for JWST are now visible in the MAST Portal. This includes instrument and filter information, as well as initial footprint plotting.

MAST Staff

The Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) has added a new feature to the Data Discovery Portal, which allows users to search for planned JWST observations, including those requested in Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) programs and Director's Discretionary Early Release Science (DD-ERS) programs. As with other Portal queries, users are able to cross-match these results with other STScI missions to explore what data are already available for the targets and fields in question.

A sample view of a MAST Portal query around 30 Doradus.

The MAST Discovery Portal can help with JWST duplication checking. Observations that duplicate planned GTO or ERS observations must be justified scientifically. To avoid unintentional duplications, JWST investigators will be required to check their proposed observations against those already approved. The Portal offers a convenient way to identify potential duplications of targets before submitting a JWST proposal, but it does not offer a complete specification of planned observations. Any potentially duplicate targets should therefore still be inspected in detail by downloading the approved APT file for the relevant programs using the program information tool. The final responsibility for duplication checking rests with each proposer.

Planned observations are designated in the MAST Discovery Portal with a calibration level of -1 (currently exclusive to JWST programs). Users may combine a filter on this parameter with any other available constraints, such as position or instrument, in an advanced search. The 'Proposal ID' field in the search results table also provides an active link to the program information page, so users may access APT files and additional information on any programs that turn up in their queries.

A Portal Advanced Search for JWST planned observations around 30 Doradus.

MAST Discovery Portal access to JWST planned observations also means that these programs are visible through the MAST API as well. Some examples of querying JWST planned observations using Python are available on GitHub (in Jupyter Notebooks), and additional API examples and tutorials are available on the MAST API documentation pages.

Additional information on duplication checking and the duplication policy for JWST may be found on JDox. Further questions or comments on finding planned JWST observations in the MAST Portal may be directed to archive@stsci.edu or to the new Archive Helpdesk.

Subscribe to HST Data Notifications via the MAST Portal

A new subscription service within the MAST Portal will notify users of updates to HST data. PI's will automatically be subscribed to their own programs and users are free to subscribe to other programs of interest.

Chinwe Edeani

The MAST Discovery Portal now includes a subscription service, which allows users with a MyST account to subscribe to HST observations in order to be notified of status changes, such as when an observation is reprocessed or made public. When these changes occur, users may choose to receive either an email or a Portal notification. Proposal PI’s will be automatically subscribed to their proposals, so you may already have one or more subscriptions in your account.

In order to create a subscription, or view your available subscriptions and notifications, you must first log into the Portal. Do this via the login panel at the top right of the page, or sign up for a MyST account here if you do not already have one.

The login panel on a MAST Portal page is highlighted.

From the “Subscriptions” tab (accessible by clicking the “Subscriptions…” button in the login panel), click the “Add” button in the top right to open the “Create New Subscriptions” window. Make the appropriate selections then click “Save” to create the subscription.

Subscriptions can be edited, paused, resumed, or deleted from the “Subscriptions” tab.

When there is a change to the dataset, a notification will be sent to the user, either via email or as a Portal notification, depending on the “Notification Type” selected during the subscription creation. Portal notifications can be viewed by clicking the bell icon in the login panel.

Additional questions or comments on the new subscription service features may be directed to the new Archive Helpdesk or mailed to archive@stsci.edu.

New and Updated HLSPs for February

In the past month, MAST has added two new High Level Science Products (FHUFD and K2SUPERSTAMP) and received updates to MUSCLES, EVEREST, and K2SFF.

Scott Fleming
FHUFD color image of Leo IV

The new HLSP Formation History of Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies (FHUFD) is a deep, high-precision, photometric survey of six ultra-faint dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way (Boötes I, Coma Berenices, Canes Venatici II, Hercules, Leo IV, and Ursa Major I) with ACS on Hubble. The drizzled images have a scale of 0.03 arcsec/pixel and come in two bands (F606W and F814W). Both images and source catalogs are available for download.


K2SUPERSTAMP mosaic image of M35

K2SUPERSTAMP consists of imaging data on four open clusters (M35, M67, Ruprecht 147, NGC 6530) observed during the K2 mission. The original small target pixel files (~50x50 pixels) have been stitched together with a World Coordinate System (WCS) solution applied to form a much larger mosaic image. Each epoch is contained in a single FITS file, which means it is now possible to identify and extract any of the stars in these superstamps via their RA and Dec, and most stars that fell across the edge of target pixel files now have spatially-continuous data.

Several other previously-available HLSPs have also been updated:

  • EVEREST has added K2 detrended light curves from Campaigns 10, 11, 12, and 13.
  • K2SFF has had detrended light curves from Campaign 14 added.
  • MUSCLES has released Version 2.2 of their spectra, which improves the “adaptive binning” version of the exoplanet-hosting stellar spectra.

If you are interested in contributing a High Level Science Product of your own to the MAST Archive, please review the guidelines for contributing an HLSP and reach out to archive@stsci.edu for further guidance.