Weighted EMPCA performs principal component analysis (PCA) on noisy datasets with missing values. Estimates of the measurement error are used to weight the input data such that the resulting eigenvectors, when compared to classic PCA, are more sensitive to the true underlying signal variations rather than being pulled by heteroskedastic measurement noise. Missing data are simply limiting cases of weight = 0. The underlying algorithm is a noise weighted expectation maximization (EM) PCA, which has additional benefits of implementation speed and flexibility for smoothing eigenvectors to reduce the noise contribution.

desitarget selects targets for spectroscopic follow-up by Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). The pipeline uses bitmasks to record that a specific source has been selected by a particular targeting algorithm, setting bit-values in output data files in a number of different columns that indicate whether a particular target meets specific selection criteria. desitarget also outputs a unique TARGETID that allows each target to be tracked throughout the DESI survey. This TARGETID encodes information about each DESI target, such as the catalog the target was selected from, whether a target is a sky location or part of a random catalog, and whether a target is part of a secondary program.