SpeX NIR survey of 886 nearby M dwarfs

The spectra were obtained with the NASA-Infrared Telescope Facility SpeX Spectrograph during a two-year observing campaign; they have high signal-to-noise ratios (S/N>100-150), span 0.8-2.4{mu}m, and have R~2000. Our catalog of measured values contains useful T_eff_ and composition-sensitive features, empirical stellar parameter measurements, and kinematic, photometric, and astrometric properties compiled from the literature.

We focus on measurements of M dwarf abundances ([Fe/H] and [M/H]), capitalizing on the precision of recently published empirical NIR spectroscopic calibrations. We explore systematic differences between different abundance calibrations, and from other similar M dwarf catalogs. We confirm that the M dwarf abundances we measure show the expected inverse dependence with kinematic-, activity-, and color-based age indicators.