The APOGEE Survey

 

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) is a high resolution, near infrared, spectroscopic survey of 100,000 luminous Milky Way red giant stars. The survey extension, APOGEE-2, is continuing observation on the SDSS 2.5 m telescope, and will also include a campaign in the southern hemisphere, providing 400,000 additional stars. APOGEE can observe through the obscuring dust of the Galactic disk to provide an unprecedented sample of stars in the inner disk and bulge, which are important regions for understanding the early Milky Way formation. Using distance measurements from Gaia, it will be possible to provide age estimates for most of the stars in the APOGEE sample. Our group is involved in examining age-abundance trends across the Galaxy. We are also involved in calibration of the survey, and efforts to combine data from other spectroscopic surveys like Gaia-ESO and GALAH.