The WISE 3-Band Cryo Source Working Database (WDB) contains positions and photometry in the 3.4, 4.6 and 12 μm bands for 261,418,479 sources extracted from observations made during the WISE 3-Band Cryo survey phase, 6 August 2010 through 29 September 2010. WISE scanned approximately 30% of the sky during this period when the telescope and focal planes operated at a slightly higher temperature, but were still cooled by solid hydrogen in the inner cryogen tank. Please see Introduction to the WISE 3-Band Cryo Data Release for more information.
CAUTION: The 3-Band Cryo Source WDB is not a well-vetted, reliable list of infrared sources like the WISE All-Sky Release Source Catalog. The WDB contains both detections of real astronomical objects, as well as spurious detections of image artifacts, noise excursions, transient events such as cosmic rays, satellite trails and hot pixels. The WDB also contains redundant extractions of objects that fall in the overlap region between the 3-Band Cryo Atlas Tiles.
The WISE 3-Band Cryo Source WDB is best used as a resource to learn more about objects that are found in the All-Sky Release Source Catalog. The 3-Band Cryo observations offer a second, independent epoch of measurement for objects in 30% of the sky, so can be used to test for object motion, flux variability and reliability in the case of very faint sources. 3-Band Cryo WDB entries have been cross-correlated with the All-Sky Catalog and associated Catalog source information is provided in the 3-Band Cryo WDB records.
Queries on the WISE 3-Band Cryo Source WDB table with GATOR default to searches of entries that have associated sources in the WISE All-Sky Release Source Catalog within 3 arcseconds, and that are not redundant extractions of 3-Band Cryo source detections in Atlas Tile overlap regions. You will see "cntr_allsky is not null and use_src=1" in the "Additional Constraints (SQL)" box at the bottom of the GATOR query page. You must change these constraints to override the default selection criteria.
CAUTION - Selecting WISE 3-Band Cryo WDB
entries that do not have counterparts in the All-Sky Release Catalog
may return unreliable extractions, unless additional quality criteria
are imposed. See TBD for suggestions on how to preferentially
identify reliable WDB entries.
We recommend always leaving the "use_src=1" selection
criterion in place to avoid selecting multiple, redundant extractions
in the Atlas Tile overlap regions.
For more information about the WISE 3-Band Cryo observations and data products, please see Section VII of the Explanatory Supplement to the WISE All-Sky and 3-Band Cryo Data Release Products.