Quality Control and
Data Processing

Science data reduction

The QC group processes a stream of science-grade data products for selected VLT instruments. They are created using certified pipelines and certified master calibrations. Find an overview of the current streams here.

XSHOOTER science products

For XSHOOTER ECHELLE,Slit mode (not: IFU), more than 30,000 science-grade flux-calibrated 1D data products are available covering the entire data history. They are available on the phase3 archive interface.

The XSHOOTER pipeline is designed to reduce raw science data. On Paranal, the quick-look pipeline makes an attempt to automatically reduce all science data. The reduction is performed using standard calibration solutions from a local calibration database.

At QC Garching, all science data taken in Service Mode are pipeline-reduced, using the best available calibration solutions, quality-checked and closest in time, following the reduction cascade. The products of science reduction are also quality-checked. If any irregularity in the reduced data is found, an attempt is made to improve on this. If not possible, information about the poor quality is made available in the SM package. Please note that ESO is not assuming any responsibility in respect to the usefulness of the reduced data. The adopted reduction strategy may not be suitable for the scientific purpose of the observations.

Frame Type	DPR.TYPE	DPR.TECH
OBJECT_SLIT_STARE_<arm>	OBJECT	ECHELLE,SLIT,STARE
OBJECT_SLIT_OFFSET_<arm>	OBJECT	ECHELLE,SLIT,OFFSET
SKY_SLIT_OFFSET_<arm>	SKY	ECHELLE,SLIT,OFFSET
OBJECT_SLIT_NOD_<arm>	OBJECT	ECHELLE,SLIT,NODDING
OBJECT_IFU_STARE_<arm>	OBJECT	ECHELLE,IFU,STARE
OBJECT_IFU_OFFSET_<arm>	OBJECT	ECHELLE,IFU,OFFSET
SKY_IFU_OFFSET_<arm>	SKY	ECHELLE,IFU,OFFSET

The following types of reduced data and products are produced for the XSHOOTER supported modes

DPR TECH	Recipe	Description	Products
ECHELLE,SLIT,STARE	xsh_scired_slit_stare	reduce single slit spectra taken in STARE mode	reduced spectra (order 1D/2D, merged 1D/2D, sky)
ECHELLE,SLIT,OFFSET	xsh_scired_slit_offset	reduce pairs of OFFSET spectra (object/sky)	reduced spectra (order 1D/2D, merged 1D/2D, sky)
ECHELLE,SLIT,NODDING	xsh_scired_slit_nod	reduce pairs of NODded spectra (AB, ABBA, etc.)	reduced spectra (order 1D/2D, merged 1D/2D)
ECHELLE,IFU,STARE	xsh_scired_ifu_stare	reduce single IFU spectra taken in STARE mode	reduced spectra in 3D cube format (merged/order)
ECHELLE,IFU,OFFSET	xsh_scired_ifu_offset	reduce pairs of OFFSET spectra (object/sky)	reduced spectra in 3D cube format (merged/order), sky in cube format