The programmatic layer of the ESO science archive has been recently upgraded. The main new feature is the support of authorized data searches, but there are other improvements useful to the all users of the ESO programmatic layer.

Authorised data searches are specifically useful to operations and GTO teams (e.g., SPECULOOS, 4MOST, NIRPS, SOXS, SPHERE and ESPRESSO GTO) who have been granted specific permissions to search and access data from observations subject to metadata protection, as per GTO policy (currently concerned some SPHERE and some ESPRESSO GTO runs).

Both the Table Access Protocol [TAP] for observational data and atmospheric measurements (tap_obs), and the DataLink services now support authentication and authorization. The TAP service for catalogue data (tap_cat) does not require this new functionality, as authorisation is currently not needed for this type of data.

Please refer to the dedicated Authentication & Authorisation page and to an accompanying python jupyter notebook to learn more.

TAP

While developing this new functionality, many other aspects were tackled, resulting in an overall better TAP service for all users.  The TAP software has been upgraded to the version 1.1 of the IVOA Table Access Protocol standard (list of changes are described in the TAP1.1 standard, in the Appendix A "Changes from TAP-1.0 to TAP-1.1"). Version 1.1 of the standard allows proper handling of arrays in table cells; this has a positive impact on both tap_obs and tap_cat:

• on tap_obs, the dbo.ssa table behind the SSAP service can finally provide the spatial position using an array, as mandatorily demanded by the SSA standard;
• on tap_cat, the support of arrays will be a fundamental stepping stone for the publishing of 4MOST catalogues which will use arrays to store probability distribution functions.

Other improvements, relevant to all users, also those running anonymous queries, are detailed in the programmatic change log page, and include:

• New output formats

This is the third and final data release of the Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census (LEGA-C, ESO programmes 194.A-2005, 1100.A-0949). The LEGA-C public spectroscopic survey targeted the 1.5 deg² of the COSMOS field (RA=10hr, Dec=+2 deg) with the VLT VIMOS multi-object spectrograph from December 2014 to May 2018.

This data release contains the science products for the full survey, doubling the sample size with respect to the second data release of 2018. It consists of 4081 spectra of 3741 unique galaxies in the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1.0, with typical continuum S/N ≃ 17, wavelength coverage 6000-9000 Angstrom and spectral resolution of R~3500. The science data products are fully reduced with a custom-built pipeline. In addition to the 1D spectra, the data release contains a catalog with spectroscopic redshifts, emission line fluxes, Lick/IDS indices, spatially integrated stellar and gas velocity RMSs (line widths). The catalogue also provides additional structural parameters measured from HST images and dynamical mass measurements. More information is available in the accompanying release documentation.

All data are publicly accessible from the Science Portal or programmatically. In addition, the catalog can be browsed via the Catalogue Facility or TAP.