Table information for 'lotss_dr3.main_sources'

General

This table is available for ADQL queries and through the TAP endpoint.

Resource Description: In this data release from the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) we present 120-168 MHz images covering 88% of the northern sky. The individual pointing images (at 6'' and 20'' resolution) were derived from 12,950 hrs (18.6 PB) of LOFAR High Band Antenna data which were processed through fully automated direction-independent and direction-dependent calibration pipelines that correct for instrumental effects as well as spatially and temporally varying ionospheric distortions. The Stokes I images were then combined, accounting for the rms noise level and telescope beam, to form the final Stokes I mosaic images at 6'' and 20'' resolution, with a central frequency of 144MHz. From the 6'' resolution Stokes mosaics we derived a catalogue of 13,664,379 radio sources (consisting of 16,943,656 Gaussian components), the majority of which have never been detected at radio wavelengths before. These mosaics have a median rms sensitivity of 92 μJy/beam; a random and systematic flux density scale accuracy of approximately 6% and 2%, respectively; an astrometric accuracy of 0.24''; and we estimate that we detect more than 95% of sources with integrated flux densities exceeding nine times the local root mean square noise. To enable thorough scientific exploitation of this unique dataset, we have published two sub-collections. The first contains all the Stokes I mosaic products described above. The second contains the individual pointing products, including calibrated uv data (measurement sets and direction-dependent calibration solutions) to allow for re-imaging or post-processing; Stokes I images at 6' ' and 20'' resolution (with associated scaling factors required to reproduce the mosaic images); Stokes V images at 6'' resolution for each observing epoch; and Stokes Q and U image cubes at 20'' and 4' resolution.

For a list of all services and tables belonging to this table's resource, see Information on resource 'lotss_dr3/q'

Citing this table

This table has an associated publication. If you use data from it, it may be appropriate to reference Shimwell et al. 2026 either in addition to or instead of the service reference.

To cite the table as such, we suggest the following BibTeX entry:

@MISC{vo:lotss_dr3_main_sources,
  year=2026,
  title={{LoTSS}-DR3 Source Catalog},
  author={Shimwell, T. W. and Hardcastle, M. J. and Tasse, C. and Drabent, A. and Botteon, A. and Williams, W. L. and Best, P.N. and Röttgering, H. J. A. and Brüggen, M. and Brunetti, G. and Callingham, J. R. and Chyży, K. T. and Conway, J. E. and De Gasperin, F. and Haverkorn, M. and Horellou, C. and Jackson, N. and Miley, G. K. and Morabito, L. K. and Morganti, R. and O'Sullivan, S. P. and Schwarz, D. J. and Smith, D. J. B. and van Weeren, R. J. and Vedantham, H. K. and White, G. J. and Ahmadi, A. and Alegre, L. and Arias, M. and Asabere, B. and Bahr-Kalus, B. and Barkus, B. and Bilicki, M. and Böhme, L. and Brentjens, M. and Brienza, M. and Bomans, D. J. and Bonafede, A. and Bonato, M. and Bonnassieux, E. and Boxelaar, J. M. and Camera, S. and Cassano, R. and Chilufya, J. and Cianfaglione, M. and Croston, J. H. and Cuciti, V. and Dabhade, P. and De Rubeis, E. and de Jong, J. M. G. H. J. and Dallacasa, D. and Dettmar, R. J. and Duncan, K. J. and Di Gennaro, G. and Edler, H. W. and Groeneveld, C. and Gürkan, G. and Hajduk, M. and Hale, C. L. and Heesen, V. and Hoang, D. N. and Hoeft, M. and Holties, H. and Horton, M. A. and Iacobelli, M. and Jamrozy, M. and Jarvis, M. J. and Jelic, V. and Kadler, M. and Kondapally, R. and Kunert-Bajraszewska, M. and Loose, M. and Magliocchetti, M. and Małek, K. and Manzano, C. and {McKean}, J. P. and Mevius, M. and Mingo, B. and Miskolczi, A. and Misra, A. and Moldón, J. and Nair, D.G. and Nakoneczny, S. J. and Orru, E. and Pashapour-Ahmadabadi, M. and Pasini, T. and Petley, J. and Pierce, J. C. S. and Prandoni, I. and Rafferty, D. and Rajpurohit, K. and Riseley, C.J. and Roberts, I. D. and Sethi, S. and Shulevski, A. and Stein, M. and Stuardi, C. and Sweijen, F. and ter Veen, S. and Timmerman, R. and Vaccari, M. and Wijnholds, S.},
  url={https://vo.astron.nl/tableinfo/lotss_dr3.main_sources},
  howpublished={{VO} resource provided by the The VO @ {ASTRON}}
}

Fields

Sorted by DB column index. [Sort alphabetically]

NameTable Head DescriptionUnitUCD
Source_Name ID The radio name of the source, automatically generated from RA and DEC in most cases N/A meta.id;meta.main
RA RA Position from PyBDSF or combination of PyBDSF components deg pos.eq.ra;meta.main
E_RA error RA Estimated by PyBDSF. Only fitting uncertainties are included arcsec stat.error;pos.eq.ra
DEC Dec Position from PyBDSF or combination of PyBDSF components deg pos.eq.dec;meta.main
E_DEC error Dec Estimated by PyBDSF. Only fitting uncertainties are included arcsec stat.error;pos.eq.dec
Total_flux Total flux The total, integrated Stokes I flux density of the source at the reference frequency mJy phot.flux.density;em.radio
E_Total_flux Error total flux The 1-sigma error on the total flux density of the source mJy stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.radio
Peak_flux Peak flux The peak Stokes I flux density per beam of the source mJy/beam phot.flux.density;em.radio
E_Peak_flux Error peak flux The 1-sigma error on the peak flux density per beam of the source mJy/beam stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.radio
Majax Major axis The FWHM of the major axis of the source, INCLUDING convolution with the 6-arcsec LOFAR beam arcsec phys.angsize
E_Maj E_Maj The 1-sigma error on the FWHM of the major axis of the source arcsec stat.error;phys.angsize
Minax Minor axis The FWHM of the minor axis of the source, INCLUDING convolution with the 6-arcsec LOFAR beam arcsec phys.angsize
E_Min E_Min The 1-sigma error on the FWHM of the minor axis of the source arcsec stat.error;phys.angsize
PA PA The position angle of the major axis of the source measured east of north, INCLUDING convolution with the 6-arcsec LOFAR beam deg pos.posang
E_PA E_PA The 1-sigma error on the position angle of the major axis of the source deg stat.error;pos.posang
DC_Maj DC_Maj The FWHM of the major axis of the source, after de-convolution with the 6-arcsec LOFAR beam arcsec phys.angsize
E_DC_Maj E_DC_Maj The 1-sigma error on the FWHM of the deconvolved major axis of the source arcsec stat.error;phys.angsize
DC_Min DC_Min The FWHM of the minor axis of the source, after de-convolution with the 6-arcsec LOFAR beam arcsec phys.angsize
E_DC_Min E_DC_Min The 1-sigma error on the FWHM of the deconvolved minor axis of the source arcsec stat.error;phys.angsize
DC_PA DC_PA The position angle of the major axis of the source measured east of north, after de-convolution with the 6-arcsec LOFAR beam deg pos.posang
E_DC_PA E_DC_PA The 1-sigma error on the position angle of the deconvolved major axis of the source deg stat.error;pos.posang
Isl_Total_flux Island total flux The total, integrated Stokes I flux density of the island mJy phot.flux.density;em.radio
E_Isl_Total_flux Error island total flux The 1-sigma error on the integrated Stokes I flux density of the island mJy stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.radio
Isl_rms RMS noise The average background rms value of the island mJy/beam instr.det.noise
S_Code Morphological code A code that defines the source structure 'S' for single Gaussian, 'M' for multiple Gaussian, 'C' = a single-Gaussian source in an island with other sources N/A meta.code;src.morph
HEALPIX Mosaic The name of the mosaic in which the FITS image can be found N/A meta.id;obs.image
Resolution Resolution The angular resolution of the mosaic image arcsec pos.angResolution;phys.angSize
mosaic_url Mosaic_url DataLink to the corresponding mosaic N/A meta.id;obs.image

Columns that are parts of indices are marked like this.

Other

The following services may use the data contained in this table:

VOResource

VO nerds may sometimes need VOResource XML for this table.

Copyright and such:

LoTSS Data Release 3 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License

/static/img/ccbysa.png