J/other/PASA/43.89  Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey. VII. 943.5MHz (Thomson+, 2026)

The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey. VII: Spectra and Polarisation In Cutouts of Extragalactic Sources (SPICE-RACS) second data release - unveiling the magnetised sky. Thomson A.J.M., Galvin T.J., Duchesne S.W., Lenc E., Heald G., Hlinka O., Malik S., Anderson C.S., Osinga E., Baidoo L., McClure-Griffiths N.M., Hutschenreuter S., O'Sullivan S.P., Akahori T., Gaensler B.M., Leahy J.P., Ma Y.K., Moss V.A., Rudnick L., Van Eck C.L., West J.L. <Publ. Astron. Soc. Australia, 43. 89 (2026)> =2026PASA...43...89T 2026PASA...43...89T (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Surveys ; Radio sources ; Radio continuum ; Morphology ; Magnetic fields Keywords: radio continuum: general - radio continuum: galaxies - polarisation - magnetic fields - galaxies - magnetic fields - ISM: magnetic fields Abstract: We present the second data release (DR2) of Spectra and Polarisation in Cutouts of Extragalactic sources from RACS (SPICE-RACS). SPICE- RACS DR2 is derived from the third low-band epoch of the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS-low3) and covers the entire sky from the South celestial pole up to a declination of +49° ; approximately 87.5% of the celestial sphere. We produce "cutout" spectral cubes in Stokes I, Q, U around 4 million radio sources and extract spectra towards 5 million radio components. Across our observed band of 799.5 to 1087.5MHz we find an rms noise of ∼200uJy/PSF, an angular resolution of ∼15", and residual wide-field instrumental polarisation on the order of 0.1%. After de-duplication, our polarisation catalogue contains the detection of 2.5x105 (3.4x105) Faraday rotation measures (RM) for components with a linearly polarised signal above 8σ (6σ). This places SPICE-RACS DR2 as the largest single RM catalogue ever produced by nearly an order of magnitude; the number of RMs in our catalogue alone is ∼5 times larger than every previous RM catalogue combined. Our resulting RM grid has an areal density of 6.71.8-1.7deg-2, providing an effective 'resolution' of ∼23', and reveals striking features across the sky. The broad-band RMs have a median uncertainty of ∼2rad/m2, and include complexity metrics and information from the time domain. The breadth and quality of the SPICE-RACS DR2 dataset will enable a new generation of RM science. Further, SPICE-RACS will provide an ideal reference for forthcoming deep polarisation surveys such as the ASKAP POSSUM survey. All of our data products are publicly available on the CSIRO Data Access Portal (DAP) and the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive (CASDA). Description: We have presented the second data release (DR2) of SPICE- RACS. Using calibrated visibilities from the third low-band epoch of the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey, RACS-low3, we have imaged 1596 observations of 1493 unique fields in Stokes I, Q, and U. Our observations cover a total sky area of 3.5π sr and a frequency range of 800 to 1088 MHz. From these image cubes we extract polarisation spectra towards 5.5M radio components detected in total intensity. Around these components, we measure an average rms sensitivity of ∼200uJy/PSF. We adopt a position dependent PSF, with an median major axis of 14.5" , and extrema of 11.8" and 75.9". In total intensity we are able to fit a model spectrum to 3.1M unique components, and we find our flux scale is accurate within 15%. File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe 80 . This file srdr2.dat 1285 9294225 SPICE-RACS DR2 catalog sources.dat 541 3980923 RACS-low3 INITIAL sources comp.dat 531 5479676 RACS-low3 INITIAL components -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See also: J/other/PASA/38.58 : Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey. II. RACS cat. (Hale+, 2021) J/other/PASA/41.3 : Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey. V. 1367.5MHz (Duchesne+, 2024) J/other/PASA/42.38 : RACS VI. RACS-high 1655.5MHz catalogue (Duchesne+, 2025) J/other/PASA/43.65 : ASKAP-FLASH catalog (Roster+, 2026) https://data.csiro.au/collection/csiro:64891 : SPICE-RACS-DR2 Home Page Byte-by-byte Description of file: srdr2.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 18 A18 --- Name Name, RACSHHMM+DDNNNN (cat_id) 20- 34 F15.11 deg RAdeg Right ascension (J2000) of the source (ra) 36- 50 F15.13 deg e_RAdeg Uncertainty on right ascension from fitting the source position (ra_err) 52- 66 F15.11 deg DEdeg Declination (J2000) of the source (dec) 68- 82 F15.13 deg e_DEdeg Uncertainty on declination from fitting the source position (dec_err) 84- 97 E14.8 Jy FTotI Total integrated density at 943.5MHz of the source (totalIflux) 99- 112 E14.8 Jy e_FTotI rms uncertainty on total integrated density at 943.5MHz of the source (totalIflux_err) 114- 127 E14.8 Jy/beam FPeak Peak flux density at 943.5MHz of the source (peakIflux) 129- 142 E14.8 Jy/beam e_FPeak rms uncertainty on peak flux density at 943.5MHz of the source (peakIflux_err) 144- 154 F11.7 arcsec Maj Size of the major axis of the source (maj_axis) 156- 169 E14.8 arcsec e_Maj Uncertainty in the source major axis (majaxiserr) 171- 181 F11.7 arcsec Min Size of the minor axis of the source (min_axis) 183- 194 F12.8 arcsec e_Min Uncertainty in the source minor axis (minaxiserr) 196- 206 F11.7 deg PA Position angle of the source, east of north (pa) 208- 218 F11.7 deg e_PA Uncertainty in the source PA (pa_err) 220- 231 F12.8 arcsec DCMaj Deconvolved source major axis (dcmajaxis) 233- 246 E14.8 arcsec e_DCMaj Uncertainty in the deconvolved source major axis (dcmajaxis_err) 248- 259 F12.8 arcsec DCMin Deconvolved source minor axis (dcminaxis) 261- 273 F13.9 arcsec e_DCMin Uncertainty in the deconvolved source minor axis (dcminaxis_err) 275- 286 F12.8 deg DCPA Deconvolved source PA (dc_pa) 288- 301 E14.8 deg e_DCPA Uncertainty in the deconvolved source PA (dcpaerr) 303- 313 F11.9 Jy/beam e_StokesI Uncertainty in Stokes I (stokesI_err) 315- 325 F11.9 Jy/beam e_StokesQ Uncertainty in Stokes Q (stokesQ_err) 327- 338 F12.9 Jy/beam e_StokesU Uncertainty in Stokes U (stokesU_err) 340- 351 F12.9 Jy/beam StokesIbkg Band-averaged background flux density in vicinity of the component in Stokes I (stokesI_bkg) 353- 364 F12.9 Jy/beam StokesQbkg Band-averaged background flux density in vicinity of the component in Stokes Q (stokesQ_bkg) 366- 377 F12.9 Jy/beam StokesUbkg Band-averaged background flux density in vicinity of the component in Stokes U (stokesU_bkg) 379- 387 F9.7 deg BeamDist Beam distance (beamdist) 389- 390 I2 --- NGaus Number of Gaussians (N_Gaus) 392- 409 A18 --- SourceID Unique identifier based on the field the source is located in and the index assigned by PyBDSF, RACSHHMM+DDNNNN (source_id) 411- 422 A12 --- TileID Tile ID (tile_id) 424- 428 I5 --- SBID Scan identification number (sbid) 430- 445 F16.10 d Start Star time MJD (start_time) 447- 460 F14.12 deg Sep Separaiton from the tile to the centre (separationtilecentre) 462 A1 --- SCode [MS] Source structure classification by PyBDSF, S = single, M = multiple (s_code) 464- 476 F13.7 rad/m2 RM ?=- Rotation measure (rm) 478- 492 F15.7 rad/m2 e_RM []?=- Uncertaity on rotation measure (rm_err) 494- 503 F10.7 Jy/beam PolInt ?=- Internal polarisation (polint) 505- 518 E14.8 Jy/beam e_PolInt Uncertaity on internal polarisation (polint_err) 520- 529 F10.7 Jy/beam StokesQ ?=- Stokes Q parameter (stokesQ) 531- 540 F10.7 Jy/beam StokesU ?=- Stokes U parameter (stokesU) 542- 552 F11.7 deg PolPA ?=- Polarisation position angle (polangle) 554- 567 F14.7 deg e_PolPA []?=- Uncertainty on polarisation position angle (polangle_err) 569- 579 F11.7 deg PolPADR ?=- Derot Polarisation position angle (derot_polangle) 581- 594 E14.8 deg e_PolPADR ?=- Uncertainty on derot Polarisation position angle (derotpolangleerr) 596- 609 E14.8 --- FracPol ?=- Polarisation fraction (fracpol) 611- 624 E14.8 Hz refFreqPol Reference frequency polarisation (reffreq_pol) 626- 639 E14.8 Hz refFreqBm Reference frequency beam (reffreq_beam) 641- 654 E14.8 Hz refFreqI Reference frequency I (reffreq_I) 656- 669 E14.8 Jy/beam FDFnoiseth FDF noise threshold (fdfnoiseth) 671- 684 E14.8 rad/m2 rmsfFWHM Rotation measure of FWHM (rmsf_fwhm) 686- 693 F8.6 m2 refwsqpol Ref Wave sp pol (refwavesqpol) 695- 704 F10.6 Jy/beam StokesI Stokes I parameter (stokesI) 706 I1 --- Flag1 [0,1] Stokes I fit is negative flag (stokesIfitflagisnegative) 708 I1 --- Flag2 [0,1] Stokes I fit is close to_zero flag (stokesIfitflagisclosetozero) 710 I1 --- Flag3 [0,1] Stokes I fit is not finite flag (stokesIfitflagisnot_finite) 712 I1 --- Flag4 [0,1] Stokes I fit is not normal flag (stokesIfitflagisnot_normal) 714- 721 F8.1 --- StIchi2r Stokes reduced chi2 (stokesIchi2red) 723- 736 E14.8 --- SNRpolint ?=- SNR pol int (snr_polint) 738- 751 E14.8 Hz minFreq Minimum frequency (minfreq) 753- 766 E14.8 Hz maxFreq Maximum frequency (maxfreq) 768- 781 E14.8 Hz chWidth Channel width (channelwidth) 783- 784 I2 --- Nchan Channel number (Nchan) 786- 794 F9.4 rad/m2 RMwidth ?=- Rotation measure width (rm_width) 796- 846 A51 --- StokesImc Stokes I model coefficient (stokesImodelcoef) 848- 900 A53 --- e_StokesImc Uncertainty on Stokes I model (stokesImodelcoef_err) 902- 904 F3.1 --- StokesImo Stokes I model order (stokesImodelorder) 906- 919 E14.8 Jy/beam noiseChan ?=- Noise channel (noise_chan) 921- 934 E14.8 Jy/beam FDFnmad FDF noise (fdfnoisemad) 936- 949 E14.8 Jy/beam FDFnrms rms of FDF noise (fdfnoiserms) 951- 960 F10.8 deg beamMaj Beam Size of the major axis (beam_maj) 962- 971 F10.8 deg beamMin Beam Size of the minor axis (beam_min) 973- 982 F10.6 deg beamPA [] Beam position angle (beam_pa) 984- 992 F9.6 deg ltilec Separation from the tile centre in RA (ltilecentre) 994-1002 F9.6 deg mtilec Separation from the tile centre in DE (mtilecentre) 1004-1013 F10.6 --- sigadd ?=- Sigma add (sigma_add) 1015-1025 F11.7 --- e_sigadd ?=- Uncertaitty on sigma add (sigmaadderr) 1027 I1 --- Flag5 [0,1] SNR flag (snr_flag) 1029 I1 --- Flag6 [0,1] Leakage flag (leakage_flag) 1031 I1 --- Flag7 [0,1] Channel flag (channel_flag) 1033 I1 --- Flag8 [0,1] Sotkes I fit flag (stokesIfitflag) 1035 I1 --- Flag9 [0,1] Complex sigma add flag (complexsigmaadd_flag) 1037 I1 --- Flag10 [0,1] Complex M2 CC flag (complexM2CC_flag) 1039 I1 --- Flag11 [0,1] Local RM flag (localrmflag) 1041 I1 --- Flag12 [0,1] Is blended ? (isblendedflag) 1043-1056 E14.8 --- blendratio ?=- Blend ratio (blend_ratio) 1058-1059 I2 --- Nblended Number of blend (N_blended) 1061-1069 F9.4 --- SpIndex Spectral index (spectral_index) 1071-1088 E18.6 --- e_SpIndex Uncertainty on spectral index (spectralindexerr) 1090-1098 F9.5 s intTime Intergrate time (int_time) 1100-1115 F16.10 d Epoch Epoch (epoch) 1117-1138 D22.15 deg GLON Galactic longitude (l) 1140-1154 F15.11 deg GLAT Galactic latitude (b) 1156-1165 F10.8 arcsec poserr Positionnal error (pos_err) 1167-1176 F10.8 --- leakage Leak age (leakage) 1178 I1 --- goodIFlag [0,1] A boolean flag that is "True" when the component is included in the our "goodI" subset (goodI_flag) 1180 I1 --- goodRMFlag [0,1] A boolean flag that is "True" when the component is included in the our "goodRM" subset (goodRM_flag) 1182-1192 I11 --- nnRMcount The number count of nearest neighbours in the goodRM subset used for foreground RM estimation (nnrmcount) 1194-1201 F8.3 rad/m2 nnRMmed The median RM in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmmed) 1203-1210 F8.3 rad/m2 nnRMmean The mean RM in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmmean) 1212-1221 F10.6 rad/m2 nnRMmadstd The median absolute deviation scaled to standard deviation of RM in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmmad_std) 1223-1232 F10.6 rad/m2 nnRMstd The standard deviation RM in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmstd) 1234-1243 F10.6 rad/m2 nnRMse The standard error on the mean RM in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmse) 1245-1256 F12.6 rad/m2 nnRMwmean The error-weighted mean RM in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmwmean) 1258-1267 F10.6 rad/m2 e_nnRMwmean The standard error on the error-weighted mean RM in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmwmean_err) 1269-1276 F8.6 deg nnRMsepmax The largest angular separation in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmsepmaxdeg) 1278-1285 F8.6 deg nnRMsepmin The smallest angular separation in nearest neighbour ensemble (nnrmsepmindeg) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: sources.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 23 A23 --- Name Name, RACS-LOW3 JHHMMSS+HHMMm (Name) 25- 42 A18 --- SourceID Unique identifier based on the field the source is located in and the index assigned by PyBDSF, RACSHHMM+DDNNNN (Source_ID) 44- 55 A12 --- FieldID Field name, RACS_HHMM+DD (Field_ID) 57- 71 F15.11 deg RAdeg Right ascension (J2000) of the source (RA) 73- 87 F15.11 deg DEdeg Declination (J2000) of the source (Dec) 89-103 F15.11 deg DEdegc Declination (J2000) of the source after declination-dependent offsets applied (Dec_corr) 105-119 F15.13 deg e_RAdeg Uncertainty on right ascension from fitting the source position (E_RA) 121-135 F15.13 deg e_DEdeg Uncertainty on declination from fitting the source position (E_Dec) 137-151 F15.13 deg e_DEdegc Uncertainty on corrected declination from fitting (EDeccorr) 153-166 E14.8 mJy Ftot Total flux density at 943.5MHz of the source (Total_flux) 168-181 E14.8 mJy e_FtotPy Uncertainty in the total flux density at 943.5MHz from PyBDSF fitting (ETotalflux_PyBDSF) 183-196 E14.8 mJy e_Ftot Quadrature sum of the brightness scale and PyBDSF uncertainties for total flux density at 943.5MHz (ETotalflux) 198-211 E14.8 mJy/beam Fpeak Peak flux density at 943.5MHz of the source (Peak_flux) 213-226 E14.8 mJy/beam e_FpeakPy Uncertainty in the peak flux density at 943.5MHz from PyBDSF fitting (EPeakflux_PyBD) 228-241 E14.8 mJy/beam e_Fpeak Quadrature sum of the brightness scale and PyBDSF uncertainties for peak flux density at 943.5MHz (EPeakflux) 243-253 F11.7 arcsec Maj Size of the major axis of the source (Maj_axis) 255-265 F11.7 arcsec Min Size of the minor axis of the source (Min_axis) 267-277 F11.7 deg PA Position angle of the source, east of north (PA) 279-290 F12.7 arcsec e_Maj Uncertainty in the source major axis (EMajaxis) 292-302 F11.7 arcsec e_Min Uncertainty in the source minor axis (EMinaxis) 304-314 F11.7 deg e_PA Uncertainty in the source PA (E_PA) 316-326 F11.7 arcsec DCMaj Deconvolved source major axis (DCMajaxis) 328-338 F11.7 arcsec DCMin Deconvolved source minor axis (DCMinaxis) 340-350 F11.7 deg DCPA Deconvolved source PA (DC_PA) (DC_PA) 352-363 F12.7 arcsec e_DCMaj Uncertainty in the deconvolved source major axis (EDCMaj_axis) 365-376 F12.7 arcsec e_DCMin Uncertainty in the deconvolved source minor axis (EDCMin_axis) 378-389 F12.7 deg e_DCPA Uncertainty in the deconvolved source PA (EDCPA) 391-404 E14.8 mJy/beam Noise Local estimate of the root-mean-square noise (Noise) 406-415 F10.7 deg Tilel Direction cosine l of the source with respect to the field centre (Tile_l) 417-426 F10.7 deg Tilem Direction cosine m of the source with respect to the field centre (Tile_m) 428-436 F9.7 deg2 Tilesep Angular separation from the field centre (Tile_sep) 438-452 F15.11 deg GLON Galactic longitude (Gal_lon) 454-468 F15.11 deg GLAT Galactic latitude (Gal_lat) 470-475 I6 arcsec PSFMaj PSF source major axis (PSF_Maj) 477-481 I5 arcsec PSFMin PSF source minor axis (PSF_Min) 483-489 F7.2 deg PSFPA PSF source PA (PSF_PA) 491 A1 --- SCode [MS] Source structure classification by PyBDSF, S = single, M = multiple (S_Code) 493-494 I2 --- NGaus Number of Gaussians (N_Gaussians) 496 I1 --- Flag Flag (Flag) 498-513 F16.10 yr SStart Scan start MJD (ScanstartMJD) 515-530 F16.12 s Slength Scan length (Scan_length) 532-536 I5 --- SBID Scan identification number (SBID) 538-541 F4.2 --- e_FluxScale [0.06] rms uncertainty pf Flux scale (EFluxscale)) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: comp.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 18 A18 --- GaussID Unique identifier based on the field the component is located in and the index assigned by PyBDSF (Gaussian_ID) 20- 37 A18 --- SourceID Unique identifier based on the field the source is located in and the index assigned by PyBDSF, RACSHHMM+DDNNNN (Source_ID) 39- 50 A12 --- FieldID Field name, RACS_HHMM+DD (Field_ID) 52- 66 F15.11 deg RAdeg Right ascension (J2000) of the source (RA) 68- 82 F15.11 deg DEdeg Declination (J2000) of the source (Dec) 84- 98 F15.11 deg DEdegc Declination (J2000) of the source after declination-dependent offsets applied (Dec_corr) 100-114 F15.13 deg e_RAdeg Uncertainty on right ascension from fitting the source position (E_RA) 116-130 F15.13 deg e_DEdeg Uncertainty on declination from fitting the source position (E_Dec) 132-146 F15.13 deg e_DEdegc Uncertainty on corrected declination from fitting (EDeccorr) 148-161 E14.8 mJy Ftot Total flux density at 943.5MHz of the source (Total_flux) 163-176 E14.8 mJy e_FtotPy Uncertainty in the total flux density at 943.5MHz from PyBDSF fitting (ETotalflux_PyBDSF) 178-191 E14.8 mJy e_Ftot Quadrature sum of the brightness scale and PyBDSF uncertainties for total flux density at 943.5MHz (ETotalflux) 193-206 E14.8 mJy/beam Fpeak Peak flux density at 943.5MHz of the source (Peak_flux) 208-221 E14.8 mJy/beam e_FpeakPy Uncertainty in the peak flux density at 943.5MHz from PyBDSF fitting (EPeakflux_PyBD) 223-236 E14.8 mJy/beam e_Fpeak Quadrature sum of the brightness scale and PyBDSF uncertainties for peak flux density at 943.5MHz (EPeakflux) 238-248 F11.7 arcsec Maj Size of the major axis of the source (Maj_axis) 250-260 F11.7 arcsec Min Size of the minor axis of the source (Min_axis) 262-272 F11.7 deg PA Position angle of the source, east of north (PA) 274-285 F12.7 arcsec e_Maj Uncertainty in the source major axis (EMajaxis) 287-297 F11.7 arcsec e_Min Uncertainty in the source minor axis (EMinaxis) 299-309 F11.7 deg e_PA Uncertainty in the source PA (E_PA) 311-321 F11.7 arcsec DCMaj Deconvolved source major axis (DCMajaxis) 323-333 F11.7 arcsec DCMin Deconvolved source minor axis (DCMinaxis) 335-345 F11.7 deg DCPA Deconvolved source PA (DC_PA) 347-358 F12.7 arcsec e_DCMaj Uncertainty in the deconvolved source major axis (EDCMaj_axis) 360-371 F12.7 arcsec e_DCMin Uncertainty in the deconvolved source minor axis (EDCMin_axis) 373-384 F12.7 deg e_DCPA Uncertainty in the deconvolved source PA (EDCPA) 386-399 E14.8 mJy/beam Noise Local estimate of the root-mean-square noise (Noise) 401-410 F10.7 deg Tilel Direction cosine l of the source with respect to the field centre (Tile_l) 412-421 F10.7 deg Tilem Direction cosine m of the source with respect to the field centre (Tile_m) 423-431 F9.7 deg2 Tilesep Angular separation from the field centre (Tile_sep) 433-447 F15.11 deg GLON Galactic longitude (Gal_lon) 449-463 F15.11 deg GLAT Galactic latitude (Gal_lat) 465-470 I6 arcsec PSFMaj PSF source major axis (PSF_Maj) 472-476 I5 arcsec PSFMin PSF source minor axis (PSF_Min) 478-484 F7.2 deg PSFPA PSF source PA (PSF_PA) 486 A1 --- SCode [MS] Source structure classification by PyBDSF, S = single, M = multiple (S_Code) 488-503 F16.10 yr SStart Scan start MJD (ScanstartMJD) 505-520 F16.12 s Slength Scan length (Scan_length) 522-526 I5 --- SBID Scan identification number (SBID) 528-531 F4.2 --- e_FluxScale [0.06] rms uncertainty pf Flux scale (EFluxscale) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History: Copied at https://data.csiro.au/collection/csiro:64891 License: CC-BY-4.0 References: McConnell et al., Paper I 2020PASA...37...48M 2020PASA...37...48M Hale et al., Paper II 2021PASA...38...58H 2021PASA...38...58H, Cat. J/other/PASA/38.58 Thomson et al., Paper III 2023PASA...40...40T 2023PASA...40...40T Duchesne et al., Paper IV 2023PASA...40...34D 2023PASA...40...34D Duchesne et al., Paper V 2024PASA...41....3D 2024PASA...41....3D, Cat. J/other/PASA/41.3 Duchesne et al., Paper VI 2025PASA...42...38D 2025PASA...42...38D, Cat. J/other/PASA/42.38
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 26-May-2026
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