Photometric Cross-Calibration of the SDSS Stripe 82 Standard Stars catalogue with Gaia EDR3, and Comparison with Pan-STARRS1, DES, CFIS and GALEX catalogues

Abstract

We extend the SDSS Stripe 82 Standard Stars Catalog with post-2007 SDSS imaging data. This improved version lists averaged SDSS ugriz photometry for nearly a million stars brighter than r~22 mag. With 2-3x more measurements per star, random errors are 1.4-1.7x smaller than in the original catalog, and about 3x smaller than for individual SDSS runs. Random errors in the new catalog are ~< 0.01 mag for stars brighter than 20.0, 21.0, 21.0, 20.5, and 19.0 mag in u, g, r, i, and z-bands, respectively. We achieve this error threshold by using the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) Gmag photometry to derive gray photometric zeropoint corrections, as functions of R.A. and Declination, for the SDSS catalog, and use the Gaia BP-RP colour to derive corrections in the ugiz bands, relative to the r-band. The quality of the recalibrated photometry, tested against Pan-STARRS1, DES, CFIS and GALEX surveys, indicates spatial variations of photometric zeropoints <=0.01 mag (RMS), with typical values of 3-7 millimag in the R.A., and 1-2 millimag in the Declination directions, except for <~6 millimag scatter in the u-band. We also report a few minor photometric problems with other surveys considered here, including a magnitude-dependent ~0.01 mag bias between 16 < G_Gaia < 20 in the Gaia EDR3. Our new, publicly available catalog offers robust calibration of ugriz photometry below 1% level, and will be helpful during the commissioning of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time.