Please find below any news regarding the Phase 3 process and a record of the past evolution in reverse chronological order.
25 October 2024
First data release from the Large Programme X-Shooting ULLYSES (XShootU)
The X-Shooting ULLYSES project (XShootU, ESO programme ID 106.211Z) aims to provide near-UV to near-IR spectra for the massive stars targeted by the HST Director’s Discretionary programme ULLYSES. This first public data release (DR1) contains UVB and VIS X-Shooter spectra (wavelength coverage of 300-1020 nm) of 232 massive stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC, SMC). All stars were observed in STARE Mode, using 0.8” and 0.7” slits for the UVB and VIS, respectively, resulting in a resolving power of ~6700 in the UVB and ~11400 in the VIS. The observations were spread on 102 different nights from October 2020 to Juli 2021 and include 129 LMC and 113 SMC stars. Both individual and co-added spectra are included in the release. Generally, individual exposures (INDIV1D) are available as ancillary files, and co-added spectra with UVB and VIS merged (COADD1D) as the main science spectra, except for some of the binaries, for which only the individual exposures are provided.
Detailed information is available in the related documentation.
Future data releases will include NIR data products and extension of the sample with sub-SMC metallicity stars, ULLYSES stars with archival XShooter data that were excluded from the large programme, and ULLYSES+ stars.
New data release from the APEX 'Core And Filament Formation and Evolution In Natal Environments' (CAFFEINE) project
This collection contains imaging data products for the observing programme CAFFEINE whose data were acquired with the ArTéMiS camera at the APEX telescope from 2018 to 2022. The 48 imaged fields cover a total area of more than ~ 2.5 deg2, focused on the dense (AV > 10) parts of molecular clouds within about 3 kpc from the Sun. The released products include, per each field the 350 μm and 450 μm intensity maps with resolutions of 8” and 10” (half-power beam width), their related weight maps and multi-resolution H2 column density maps. These datasets have been carefully calibrated and combined with Herschel/SPIRE data to recover large-scale emission that cannot be detected from the ground with ArTéMiS. The column density maps have been derived by including additional Herschel data at 160 μm and 250 μm and have a resolution ranging from ~8” in their denser inner parts (AV > 40) to 18.2” in the lower-density outer parts (AV < 40). For more details, refer to the accompanying release documentation or the publication by Mattern et al. (2024, A&A, preprint: 2024arXiv240515713M).
Sixth and last release of UltraVISTA Public Survey data
UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. A recent overview of UltraVISTA can be found in this presentation. The sixth and lastUltraVISTA data release, “DR6” or “Legacy”, comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters, as well as single-band and dual-mode source lists. The data release also contains a five-band merged catalogue, created from the individual Ks-selected source lists. The release is based on the observations carried out from December 2009 to March 2023, corresponding to 99,845 individual images. The observations obtained since the DR5 release are mostly in the Y -band “deep” stripes in order to bring them to the same depth as the previously observed “ultra-deep” stripes. Thus, in this release, the depth is nearly uniform over the full field for the broad-band Y JHKs filters. This release also uses GTO data obtained in 2010 in the J and the NB118 filters in the “deep” stripes.
The total exposure time contributing to this release is 2290 hours, and the total survey area is close to 1.9 square degrees. The seeing in the five stacks is ~0.75". The data volume is ∼90 GB.
By accessing the UltraVISTA DR6, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the Principal Investigators of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including the CANDIDE data centre at the IAP (France) and CASU (UK).The DOI assigned to the data collection is 10.18727/archive/52
22 April 2024
Data Release of the MUSE gAlaxy Groups In COSMOS (MAGIC) survey datacubes
The release of the MUSE gAlaxy Groups In COSMOS (MAGIC) survey (Programs 094.A-0247, 095.A-0118, 096.A-0596, 097.A-0254, 098.A-0017, 099.A-0246, 0100.A-0607, 0101.A-0282, 0102.A-0327, 0103.A-0563, PI T. Contini) is composed of 18 datacubes, observed with exposure times from 1 to 10 hours, with a median of 4.3 hours, using the wide-field mode, with a spectral sampling of 1.25 Angstroms and a spatial sampling of 0.2 arcsecond. The datacubes cover the wavelength range between 4700 and 9350 Angstroms and have an image quality better than 0.7’’ FWHM owing to good observing conditions and/or to the use of adaptive optics. The median 3σ point-source flux limit of an unresolved emission line reaches 3.6x10-19 erg s-1 cm-2 and the median point source magnitude limit is about 28.5 at 5σ in white-light images. The MAGIC survey datacubes target 15 known massive groups and clusters at intermediate redshift (0.3 < z < 0.8), 14 of which being located in the COSMOS field and one in the VVDS field. This dataset is incredibly rich and contains more than one thousand of objects, from stars to high redshift galaxies, as well as extended nebulae.
More information about the observing program, data processing, sample, associated group and galaxy catalogs, and other features discovered in this dataset can be found in the accompanying release description documentation and in the associated publication (Epinat et al. 2024).
The fully reduced and stacked datacubes and associated white-light images are available from the ESO Archive Science Portal Archive Science Portal or via Table Access Protocol.
Release of pipeline processed imaging and IFU products from ERIS
The two newly available data collections, ERIS-NIX and ERIS-SPIFFIER, provide access to reduced scientific imaging products and 3D data cubes, respectively. Data of both collections are obtained with ERIS, the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph, a general-use infrared integral field spectrograph and imager that utilises the adaptive optics on the VLT’s UT4.
ERIS-NIX: The imager operates in the near-infrared range of 1 – 5 μm (J to Mp bands) and is designed to provide diffraction limited imaging. The focus of this release is dedicated to the fully reduced products from the ERIS/NIX imager with the 13 or 27mas/pixel cameras (field-of-view of 27”x27” and 55”x55”). The other modes and data formats offered by NIX, coronagraphy, very short exposure “burst” mode cubes, and long-slit spectroscopy are currently not included in this release, but may be added at a later date.
The NIX data provided consists of science exposures that have been dark-corrected, flat-fielded, linearity and gain corrected, sky background corrected, and astrometrically and photometrically calibrated. The data provided consists of combined (stacked), resampled exposures, their associated single-band source detection catalogues, and the individual exposures that make up the stacked images. Each of these science frames is provided as a multi-extension fits file, consisting of data, background, errors and quality maps.
ERIS-SPIFFIER: The spectrograph is a medium-resolution integral field spectrograph that operates in the near-infrared range of 1 – 2.5 μm (J, H, and K bands). SPIFFIER has twelve grating configurations. Three low-resolution (R~5,000) grating configurations span each of the J, H, and K bands. The nine high-resolution (R~10,000) configurations span each of these bands in sets of three, with each grating spanning approximately one half of the band (one covering the first half, one covering the second half, and one centred on the middle of the band). Three plate scales correspond to an on-sky field-of-view of 0.8" x 0.8", 3.2" x 3.2", and 8" x 8", with corresponding spaxel (spatial pixels) of sizes 12.5 x 25, 50 x 100, and 125 x 250 mas/spaxel, respectively. SPIFFIER can be operated without adaptive optics (AO), with natural guide star AO, and/or with a single laser guide star.
The released data consist of science exposures that have been dark-corrected, flat-fielded, wavelength calibrated, sky background corrected and, if possible, photometrically calibrated. The reconstructed 3D combined cube constitutes the primary data product and is provided as a multi-extension file (MEF) consisting of the data, error and quality cubes. The fully processed, individual 3D cubes that make up each combined cube are also included, along with the mean collapsed combined cube (white light), the associated sky exposure cube, and the exposure map.
First data release of HARPS Radial Velocity catalog
The first public data release of the HARPS Radial Velocities Catalog contains measurements obtained from 2003 to 2023 with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph installed at the ESO 3.6m telescope in La Silla Observatory (Chile).
The catalog comprises 289843 observations of 6488 unique astronomical objects. 282294 radial velocities are reported in this catalog that are obtained using the HARPS pipeline (typical precision of 0.5 m/s) and 288972 independent radial velocities that are measured on the H_alpha spectral line (typical error of around 300 m/s).
Each observed target has been cross-matched with SIMBAD database to ensure accurate identification. Information provided for each target includes: astrometric parameters (coordinates, parallaxes, proper motions, radial velocities), photometric parameters (apparent magnitudes in the visible and near-infrared), spectral types and object classifications.
Second data release from the VISTA second cycle Public Survey VEILS
The VISTA Extragalactic Infrared Legacy Survey (VEILS, PI: Banerji, Program ID:198.A-2005) is a deep J and Ks-band transient and wide-field survey being conducted using the VIRCAM camera with the primary goals of understanding the epoch of reionisation, the build-up of massive galaxies, and constraining the cosmological equation of state using both Type 1a supernovae and AGN dust lag measurements. The total VEILS surveyed area is 9 sq-deg of the extragalactic sky over three fields: XMM-LSS, CDFS and ELAIS-S1. The data acquisition for the VEILS survey was successfully completed in 2022 prior to the VIRCAM decommissioning.
This second data release contains pawprint images 3173 pawprints, in total 1582 in the J-band and 1591 in the Ks-band, and deep stacked pawprints, 72 in total over the 3 cosmological fields. These data products come together with associated confidence maps and single-band J and Ks source lists. lists. The release includes all images taken as part of the VEILS survey between 2016-10-22 and 2019-12-30. The DR2 release corresponds to 100% of DR1 imaging data which have been reprocessed with version 1.5 of the pipeline, plus an incremental release of single epoch observations.
The breakdown of the number of epochs per pointing and band associated with each cosmological field is available in the release description document.
The VEILS DR2 data products are available from the ESO Archive Science Portal or programmatically. More details about the release content can be found in the accompanying documentation and via the collection DOI. By accessing the VEILS DR2 products, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including CASU.
14 November 2023
Third and final release of the programme Investigating Stellar Population In RElics (INSPIRE)
The scientific objective of the XShooter ESO Large Program 1104.B-0370 INSPIRE (PI: C. Spiniello, 2021A&A...646A..28S), is to create the first catalogue of spectroscopically confirmed relics in the redshift range 0.1<z<0.5, which bridges the gap between the three local confirmed relics and the high-z red nuggets galaxies. The availability of this sample of objects enables to put stringent constraint on the predictions from simulations on the initial intense phase of star formation in passive galaxies.
This third and final data release completes the INSPIRE sample, making thus publicly available the UVB, VIS and NIR 1D spectra of all the 52 targeted ultra-compact massive galaxies. This release provides also a catalogue which contains the morphological and photometric characteristics, as well as spectroscopic and stellar populations information for each of the galaxy in the sample.
First release of X-shooter spectra from the young stellar objects observed under the PENELLOPE LP
The PENELLOPE Large Programme (Pr.Id. 106.20Z8) is a multi-instrument spectroscopic survey aimed at obtaining complementary data to the targets of the ULLYSES program. The latter is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Director’s Discretionary Time that was executed in a three-year period, from HST Cycle 27 through Cycle 29 (2020-2022).
The HST ULLYSES program is aimed at obtaining low- and medium-resolution spectra of young stars covering the wavelength range from ∼140 nm to ∼1 μm, hence providing a view of accretion and ejection tracers at ultraviolet wavelengths. The PENELLOPE program is a public community-driven effort. It provides optical high-resolution (ESPRESSO, UVES, R>60,000) and medium-resolution flux-calibrated optical and infrared spectra (up to 2.5 μm) with X-Shooter (R > 10,000), giving access to information that is otherwise not obtainable with the HST spectra provided by ULLYSES, such as main stellar properties, accurate interstellar extinction, and veiling; kinematics and geometry of the accretion and wind processes, and more.
This first release includes all the X-Shooter spectra of the 74 young stellar objects observed, located in 8 star-forming regions: Orion OB1, sigma Orionis, Chamaeleon I, Corona Australis, eps Chamaeleon, eta Chamaeleon, Lupus, and Taurus.
6 of them have been observed in two epochs, and 1 in 3 epochs. In total, this data release comprises 82 X-Shooter spectra, each divided in the three X-Shooter arms (UVB, VIS, NIR), absolutely flux calibrated, corrected for telluric absorption, and with resolution ranging from 5400 to 9700 in the UVB arm, 18400 in the VIS arm, and 11600 in the NIR arm.
First Data Release of ePESSTO+, the advanced Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects
ePESSTO+ the advanced Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PI: Inserra, ESO program IDs 1103.D-0328 and 106.216C) started in April 2019 and it is currently ongoing at the New Technology Telescope using the instruments EFOSC2 and SOFI. It is the second extension of the PESSTO survey (PI: Smartt).
ePESSTO+ targets supernovae and optical transients brighter than 20 mag for classification and selected science targets for detailed follow-up. It uses standard EFOSC2 setups with resolutions of 13-17Å between 3680-10320Å, SOFI spectroscopy for brighter science targets, with the blue and red (rarely) grisms (resolutions 23Å - 33Å), and SOFI imaging with broadband JHKs filters.
This first release includes spectra and images collected in the first 2.5 years of ePESSTO+ operations, from April 2019 to October 2021.
In this period spectra were taken for a total of 2138 objects; from that set, 178 ePESSTO+ Key Science targets were identified and followed-up for time series of EFOSC2 optical spectra, with the brighest also having SOFI spectra: 154 supernovae, 1 supernova imposter, 15 tidal disruption events (one of which is represented in the figure below), 2 LBV, 2 AGN, 4 supernova light echoes.
The higher resolution EFOSC grsims Gr#18 and Gr#20 were employed occasionally to allow higher spectral resolution for objects with H-Balmer lines in emission.
In total this release contains 14 GB of data: 2157 EFOSC2 spectra, 18 SOFI spectra, 480 SOFI images. The data products are available from the ESO Archive Science Portal or the Programmatic Access services, under the collection name ePESSTOplus, though the official name reamins ePESSTO+.
Final data release (5.1) of the Gaia-ESO public spectroscopic survey.
Utilizing the UVES and GIRAFFE instruments, this comprehensive survey has encompassed all major components of the Milky Way, systematically studying 114,916 stars. The observed robust samples have enabled detailed observations of bulge, thick and thin disks, halo components, and open star clusters of various ages and Galactocentric distances.
The survey has provided an unprecedented, homogeneous overview of kinematic distributions and elemental abundances, significantly enhancing our understanding of Galactic and stellar evolution. Coupled with Gaia astrometry, this data helps quantify the formation history and evolution of Galactic populations across diverse stages, providing individual elemental abundances in each star, offering precise radial velocities for a 6-D kinematic phase-space, mapping kinematic gradients and abundances, and tracking the life cycle of open clusters as they populate the disk.
This final data release represents a valuable legacy dataset, enhancing the utility of the Gaia mission and ongoing ESO surveys.
UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. The fifth UltraVISTA data release comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters, as well as single-band and dual-mode source lists. The data release also contains a five-band merged catalogue, created from the individual Ks-selected source lists. The release is based on the observations carried out from December 2009 to mid 2019, corresponding to 81125 individual images. This is three years more than DR4. The additional data have almost homogenised the exposure time in the “deep” and “ultra-deep” stripes in the J, H and Ks filters, which now reach the same depths to ∼0.15 mag.
The total exposure time contributing to this release is 1786 hours, and the total survey area is close to 1.9 square degrees. The seeing in the five stacks is in the range 0.75"-0.77".
By accessing the UltraVISTA DR5, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the Principal Investigators of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including the CALET data centres (France) and CASU (UK).
Data Release of the MUSE Hubble Ultra-Deep Field surveys (AMUSED) mosaic cubes and catalogue
The release of the MUSE Hubble Ultra-Deep Field survey (Programmes 094.A-0289(B), 095.A-0010(A), 096.A-0045(A), 096.A-0045(B) and 1101.A-0127, PI R. Bacon) includes the deepest spectroscopic survey ever performed. The MUSE mosaic data cubes, with their 3D content, amazing depth, wide spectral range, and excellent spatial and medium spectral resolution, are rich in information. The 3σ point-source flux limit of an unresolved emission line reaches 3.1×10-19 and 6.3×10-20 erg s-1 cm-2 at 10- and 141-hour depths, respectively. The redshifts of 2221 sources have securely been identified and measured. With the exception of eight stars, the collected sample consists of 25 nearby galaxies (z < 0.25), 677 [O ii] emitters (z = 0.25 - 1.5), 201 galaxies in the MUSE redshift desert range (z = 1.5 - 2.8) and 1308 Lyα emitters (z = 2.8 - 6.7). This represents an order of magnitude more than the collection of all spectroscopic redshifts obtained before MUSE in the Hubble ultra-deep field area (i.e., 2221 versus 292). At high redshift (z > 3), the difference is even more striking, with a factor of 65 increase (1308 versus 20).
Together with the three mosaiced science data cubes and their ancillary products, whitelight images and exposure maps, the release also includes the catalog of the main measured properties (redshift, main emission and absorption line flux) of the 2221 analyzed sources. The location of these products in the Hubble ultra-deep field area further benefits from an exquisite collection of ancillary panchromatic information. They can now be browsed conjointly with the LaSilla-Paranal and ALMA products in the ESO science archive.
More information can be found in the accompanying documentation and in the refereed publication. All the data, the three mosaiced cubes and catalogue are available for download via the Archive Science Portal or programmatically. The redshift catalog can also be queried here or via TAP.
The DOI assigned to the data collection is https://doi.org/10.18727/archive/85
9 March 2023
Revised version of the UltraVISTA COSMOS2020 FARMER catalogue available
With the new release DR4.1.1 the UltraVISTA team provides an updated version of the COSMOS2020 FARMER catalogue, previously released in DR4.1. The team has since discovered that the magnitude errors were underestimated in the large error regime and the newly released catalogue addresses this issue. The flux errors and all derived quantities such as photo-zs are not affected, nor is affected the CLASSIC catalogue.
The updated catalogue is now available as the default catalog version when accessing data via the catalog query interface , via TAP and ASP. The previous version remains available on request and also from TAP labeled as "COSMOS2020_FARMER_V1".
Third Data Release from the Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) ESO VISTA Public Survey
Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) is a survey (programme 198.A-2008, PI M. Nonino) belonging to the second cycle of ESO VISTA Public Surveys. It is aimed at observing 20 massive galaxy clusters in the infrared Y, J, and Ks bands. Those clusters have also been observed in many ground- and space-based programmes (e.g. CLASH, RELICS, HFF/ BUFFALO). The survey will mainly explore galaxy evolution over a wide, and still largely unexplored, diversity of cluster environments.
This third data release contains tile images, weightmaps and related source lists from data collected over the time period from October 2016 to March 2022 and corresponding to all the 525 OBs collected in the whole survey with ESO grade A and B. The tile images reach a typical sensitivity in AB magnitude of ~23.5 in Y, ~23.3 in J, and ~22.4 in Ks. The total area covered by the observations is ~38 deg2 and the total volume of the release is 2.1 TB.
Images and source lists of OBs released in DR1 (224 files) and DR2 (616 files) are replaced in DR3, with new astrometric reference system (GAIA-EDR3).
Full stack images and catalogues will be part of a future release.
First data release of the deep MUSE mosaic from the Large Programme 1100.A-0528
This is the first data release, DR1 of the IFS deep cube obtained in the MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF) as part of the Large Programme ID 1100.A-0528, PI M. Fumagalli.
This release contains a single IFS cube of the MUDF mosaic, along with a white-light image and exposure map (3 files, 18 Gb total volume). The data is a combination of 144 hrs of observations, taken between August 2017 and June 2022. The field covers a total area of 8 arcmin2, it is centered at RA 21h:42m:24s; Dec 44o:19m:48s (J2000, FSK5), and overlaps with two z~3.22 quasars which are separated by 62 arcsec on the sky. The MUDF covers a spectral range from 4650Å to 9300Å and reaches a 5-sigma limiting AB magnitude of 26.9 in the central regions where there is the largest number of observations (texp > 80 hrs).
Second data release of the XSHOOTER spectra from the Large Programme INSPIRE published
This second data release (DR2) of the X-Shooter ESO Large Program 1104.B-0370, "INvestigating Stellar Population In Relics", INSPIRE, PI C. Spiniello, provides 1-D spectra for 21 new systems and new versions for the spectra of the 19 ultra-compact massive galaxies already released in DR1, to which the NIR band spectra have been added.
For each galaxy, there are three 1D spectral products: one UVB spectrum, one VIS and one NIR. In addition, combined UVB+VIS_NIR spectra, restframed and smoothed to a final resolution of FWHM = 2.52Å, are also published as ancillary files, since they were used for stellar population analysis. The data release contains a total of 120 spectra and 40 ancillary files, for a total volume of 41 Mb.
Following the results published in Spiniello et al., 2021b, A&A 654, A136 it was concluded that spectra obtained with different extraction methods are equivalent for the INSPIRE science case. Hence these spectra released here use only an aperture that includes 50% of the target light. Additional detailed information is available in the release description and in the related paper.
New data release of MUSE cubes of the Fornax3D Survey
The Fornax3D survey is an integral field spectroscopic survey of the Fornax cluster's galaxies. This data release contains mosaiced IFS MUSE cubes with their white lamp images for the 31 galaxies brighter than mB=15 within the virial radius of the cluster. The total data volume is 121.5 Gb. The survey was conducted under the ESO programme 296.B-5054(A), PI M. Sarzi and E. Iodice, with MUSE at the ESO VLT in wide-field mode. This instrument configuration ensures a spatial sampling of 0.2×0.2 arcsec2, a wavelength coverage from 4650 to 9300 Å with a spectral sampling of 1.25 Å/pixel, and a nominal spectral resolution of FWHM = 2.5 Å at 7000 Å. The main science goals of the survey are to understand the assembly history of the Fornax cluster and of the early-type galaxies, study the formation of substructures in galaxies and the properties of globular cluster and planetary nebulae population. For more information please consult the latest paper by Sarzi, Iodice et al. on the Messenger.
Several targeted galaxies were observed with multiple pointings, up to three, depending on their angular extent. Whenever multiple pointings are available, they are merged together into a final mosaic. The total integration times for the central and middle fields are about 1 hour, while a total integration of 1.5 hours was required in the outer regions to reach the limiting surface brightness of mB= 25 mag/arcsec2. The observations were taken in good seeing conditions with a median FWHM = 0.72’’. For more information on the data of this release please consult the comprehensive release description.
New data release from the APEX Large CO Heterodyne Outflow Legacy Supercam survey of Orion (ALCOHOLS) project
This collection provides wide-field spectral line imaging data cubes (5 cubes, total volume: 11.50Gb) of the Orion A and B giant molecular clouds in the 12CO (J=3-2) line at a frequency of 345.795990 GHz from observations collected under ESO programme 094.C-0935(A), PI: T. Stanke, and the Swedish programme 094.F-9343. The data were obtained using the SuperCAM 64-pixel heterodyne array camera at the APEX telescope in December 2014. The cubes cover a total area of ~2.7 deg2 in the Orion A and B giant molecular clouds. The frequency axis includes the full spectral extent of the CO line detected in the area, including high-velocity line wings from protostellar molecular outflows. The data reveal a wealth of cloud structures and allow for an unbiased search for protostellar molecular outflows over a large portion of a star-forming cloud. A full presentation of the survey overview and data was published in Stanke et al. (2022, A&A 658, A178).
The released data are available via ASP or programmatically and include 5 science data cubes together with the associated whitelight maps and cubes in the GILDAS LMV format. More information is available in the related documentation; the DOI assigned to the data collection is 10.18727/archive/80.
14 December 2022
Release of pipeline-processed high-resolution imaging data obtained with SPHERE/IRDIS
SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch) is an extreme adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility feeding three science instruments: IRDIS, IFS, and ZIMPOL. The primary science goal of SPHERE is imaging, low-resolution spectroscopic, and polarimetric characterization of extra-solar planetary systems. IRDIS, the infrared dual-band imager and spectrograph provides classical imaging (CI), dual-band imaging (DBI), dual-polarization imaging (DPI), and long slit spectroscopy (LSS) between 0.95 – 2.3 µm.
The first data release covers 602 IRDIS imaging observations acquired between April 2019 and March 2020, i.e. ESO periods P103 and P104. The data were processed by the SPHERE Data Center, a support service provided by the French community, which is jointly operated by OSUG/IPAG (Grenoble), PYTHEAS/LAM/CESAM (Marseille), OCA/Lagrange (Nice, France), Observatoire de Paris/LESIA (Paris), and Observatoire de Lyon. Users interested in more advanced data products (application of various high-contrast data reduction techniques, or intermediate data products to apply their own algorithm), can download them from the SPHERE Data Center or DIVA+ database.
Second data release - DR2.0 - of the Large Programme MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies - MAGG
With this second data release, the large program "MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies project - MAGG'' (ESO programme ID: 197.A-0384, PI: M. Fumagalli) provides the community with high quality VLT/MUSE cubes centered on bright redshift z~3-4.5 quasars (Lofthouse et al. 2020).
These absorbers were discovered in archival high-to-medium resolution spectra of these quasars collected, among others, with UVES and XSHOOTER. The primary goal of this ESO large programme is to probe the distribution of gas around these intermediate redshift galaxies by linking known optically thick absorbers and the galaxies newly discovered by MUSE.
This second MAGG data release contains the 23 MUSE cubes acquired by the large programme and plus 5 MUSE cubes for 5 quasars taken from archival data, which were part of the MUSEQuBES survey (Muzahid et al. 2020). These systems are J095852+120245, J102009+104002, J142438+225600, J162116-004251, J200324-325145 and data was observed as part of the programmes 094.A-0280, 095.A-0200, 099.A-0159, 097.A-0089, 094.A-0131.
For each of the 28 quasar fields, the final coadded MUSE data cube, reduced using the CubEx software (Cantalupo et al. 2019), is published in the DR2.0, with their white lamp image. Each cube results from the combination of a total of at least 4 hours on source obtained in sub-arcsecond seeing conditions. The dept of this data allows the detection of 90% of the point source line emitters brighter than an integrated line flux of 3E-18 erg/s/cm2.
New data release of the Vista Magellanic Cloud Survey (VMC): YJKs imaging of the LMC and updated survey catalogues
The ESO Public Survey project VMC, ESO program 179.B-2003, PI M. R. Cioni, targets the Magellanic Cloud system in three filters: Y, J and Ks. The main goals are the determination of the spatially resolved star formation history and study the three-dimensional geometry of the system.
This new data release DR6 provides the complete set of observations covering the Large Magellanic Cloud, ~110 deg2, taken between November 2009 and October 2018. It contains both newly released observations (61 tiles) and updated versions of the 7 LMC survey tiles previously released, reprocessed by CASU using the newer version of the pipeline v1.5 which includes improved photometric calibration.
In addition, the release provides high-level products generated from the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU): deep co-added tile images and catalogues (separately for each filter), for both individual tiles and combined, as well as photometric source catalogues covering the whole survey area: one band-merged catalogues, three multi-epoch catalogues, one per filter, one catalogue including the PSF magnitudes and one catalogue of variable sources. These catalogues can be queried conjointly via the query facility or TAP.
More detailed information is available in the accompanying documentation.
20 September 2022
Release of pipeline processed FORS2 spectroscopic 1D science products
This data release provides access to reduced scientific 1D spectra obtained with FORS2, the visual and near-UV FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 on the VLT.
Data acquired with one of the three spectroscopic modes of FORS2 (within the wavelength range of 330-1100 nm) are included in this release. These modes are long-slit spectroscopy (LSS) using a mask with 6.8′ slit length of different widths, and multi-object spectroscopy with movable slit blades (MOS, slit length about 20′′) or with masks (MXU, arbitrary slit length). The spectroscopic data have been reduced using the FORS2 pipeline version 5.6.1 or higher. Processing includes flat fielding, wavelength calibration, correction of spatial distortion, sky subtraction, optimal extraction of spectra, and flux calibration. The FORS2 pipeline extracts spectra from a single exposure. If several exposures on the same target are executed within the same observing template, the additional reduction step of stacking them together is performed using the ESOTK pipeline (version 0.9.5 or higher). In this case the single exposure spectra are made available as associated files, while the combined spectrum becomes the primary product. See the accompanying release description for further information.
The FORS2-SPEC data collection contains 1D spectroscopic products starting from January 2022 and its data content will grow with time. As new data are acquired at the observatory, the reduced products will become available in approximately monthly release cycles as soon as they are processed. The 1D spectra inherit the access rights of the raw data accordingly to the standard ESO data access policy: they become public after the proprietary period has expired, typically one year after observation.
Data Release of the ESO-VLT Multi-Instrument Kinematic Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters
This release provides stellar spectroscopy of galactic globular clusters in YJ band (1.0-1.35 μm), for a total of 5397 1-D extracted spectra in 30 clusters. The data was acquired using the K-band Multi Object Spectrograph (KMOS) under the ESO large program 193.D-0232, PI F. R. Ferraro.
The targeted stars are mainly cool giants in the brightest portion of the Red Giant Branch selected from suitable Color-Magnitude diagrams. All targets are relatively bright objects, typically with J<14. The spectra have been extracted manually by visually inspecting each IFU and selecting the brightest spaxel corresponding to each target star’s centroid. The aim of the large program is to probe globular cluster internal dynamics by studying the radial velocity dispersions and rotation profiles of a representative sample of galactic globular clusters. Additional information is available in the release description.
New release - DR 4.1 - of the UltraVISTA/COSMOS2020 catalogues
UltraVISTA (PIs J. Dunlop, M. Franx, J. Fynbo, O. LeFèvre, Programme ID 179.A-2005, 198.A-2003) is an ultra-deep near-infrared ESO Public Survey targeting the central region of the COSMOS field. This public survey started in April 2010 and has been completed during the VISTA Public Survey Cycle II in 2022.
This new release (DR4.1) contains two independent multi-wavelength photometric catalogues, computed using different techniques. The CLASSIC catalogue is generated using an aperture photometric measurement method as that adopted in the previous COSMOS2015 catalogue. The second catalogue, labelled FARMER, is created using a new profile-fitting photometric tool which the UltraVISTA team developed. The FARMER catalogue uses a source list derived independently from the CLASSIC one. The data present in the previous COSMOS2015 catalogue have been reprocessed to take advantage of the improved astrometry from the Gaia reference catalogue.
About 1 million sources are measured with all available broad-band data, with both methods. Photometric redshifts and physical parameters are computed for both catalogues using LePhare (Arnouts et al. 2002; Ilbert et al. 2006) and EAZY (Brammer et al. 2008). At i < 21, sources have sub-percent photometric redshift precision and even the faintest sources at 25 < i < 27 reach a photometric redshift accuracy of 5 %.
The principal improvements in COSMOS2020 catalogues compared to previous COSMOS2015 catalogue are the significantly deeper optical and near-infrared images from the Subaru-HSC and VISTA/VIRCAM imaging surveys. In addition, this release contains the definitive reprocessing of all Spitzer data ever taken on COSMOS.
Fifth Gaia-ESO data release: the catalogue with the astrophysical parameters for ~115000 stars
Gaia-ESO is an ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey (under ESO Programme IDs: 188.B-3002, 193.B-0936, 197.B-1074; PIs: Gerry Gilmore & Sofia Randich) carried out with GIRAFFE and UVES on the VLT between 2012 and 2018. The survey targeted more than 100,000 stars, with 115,000 actually observed by the end of the survey. These stars are selected across all major components of the Milky Way, from halo to star-forming regions, with the goal of providing an homogeneous overview of their kinematics and elemental abundance distributions.
The DR5.0 release includes all the astrophysical parameters derived by the Gaia-ESO consortium for 114324 stars. In detail the catalogue provides:
the radial and projected rotational velocities,
stellar parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity and metallicity),
abundances of several elements,
specific parameters for tracing accretion and activity in young stars,
for the targets of the cluster fields, it is provided the cluster probability membership, calculated combining Gaia-ESO radial velocities with astrometry from Gaia EDR3 release (Jackson et al. 2022MNRAS.509.1664J).
More information about the release content can be found in the accompanying documentation. The fifth data release from the Gaia-ESO survey is now available on the ESO archive, and it is accessible to the community via the ESO Catalogue Facility, programmatically, and via the Science Portal (specifically the catalogue preview gives you instantaneous access to the histograms of all the catalogues columns).
The Gaia ESO science catalogue published in the DR5.0 have been produced by the PIs and their collaborators, including CASU
11 April 2022
Fifth and final data release of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) Survey now available
VIDEO (under programme ID 179.A-2006, PI: Jarvis) is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMM-LSS, and E-CDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of the first cycle Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) public surveys conducted at ESO and now completed.
In this final release (VIDEO DR5) all individual stacked pawprints and tiles from Nov 2009 to Sep 2018 are released, as well as the corresponding single-band source lists. In addition, deep-stacked images in Z, Y, J, H, Ks filters are released. They are provided both as stacks of tiles (total of 8x5 images), and as one large mosaic for each field (3x5 images). Their corresponding aperture-matched source lists are also provided. The data also include a band-merged photometry source catalogue which contains i) 842,337 unique sources in the VIDEO-ES1 area, ii) 1,279,857 unique sources over the ~4.5 deg2 in the VIDEO-XMM area, and iii) 1,138,485 sources over the ~4.5 deg2 in the VIDEO-CDFS area.
The release consists of 1.8 TB of data, with images all (re-)processed using version 1.5 of the VISTA reduction pipeline provided by CASU.
More information is available in the accompanying release documentation.
The VIDEO science data products published in the final DR5.0 have been produced by the PI and his collaborators, including CASU and the Wide-Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh.
11 April 2022
ESO Science Data Products standard version 8 published
Version 8 of the ESO Science Data Products standard is now published; highlights of the revisions are:
Extensive review of the catalogue section to i) incorporate a new data format to support multi-epoch catalogue data and ii) improve readability and clarity of the text.
Two interface changes are introduced:
The white light image inherits the HDUCLASS scheme of the science data cube in case of multiple HDUs.
Propagation of keyword values from science files to a catalogue.
For more detailed information, please consult the change record from the previous version, which is available in the document. The new version of the Science Data Products standard can be downloaded as PDF document.
28 February 2022
Second data release from the VISTA Cycle 2 ESO Public Survey VISIONS
VISIONS (programme id 198.C-2009, PI J. Alves) is a Near-Infrared ESO second cycle VISTA Public Survey which covers all major nearby star-forming regions accessible from the southern hemisphere. This imaging survey is designed to deliver deep high-sensitivity observations of areas with large amounts of extinction. It includes also control fields which sample the predominant stellar populations in largely extinction-free regions and multiple epochs imaging data over large areas surrounding the targeted star-forming regions to enable the computation of proper motions for sources inaccessible to Gaia.
This second data release (DR2) contains all the observations on the star-forming region Corona Australis. In total, 160 tiles covering about 43 deg2 have been observed, for a total of 3360 files and 0.87 T, between April 2017 and October 2021. The image quality is excellent throughout the entire survey fields with most data featuring point source FWHMs better than 1 arcsec. Compared to 2MASS, the survey reaches up to 6 mag fainter sensitivity limits.
For each observed field, photometrically and astrometrically calibrated tiles and stacked pawprints, together with a corresponding source table are published and available via the Archive Science Portal or programmatically.
A detailed description of the released data is available in the related documentation.
2 February 2022
First data release of the Burst Alert Telescope AGN legacy survey of molecular gas fueling in powerful nearby AGN
The APEX telescope has obtained CO(2-1) spectra for a sample of 165 hard-X-Ray-selected AGN galaxies detected in observations by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) onboard Swift. These observations, taken under the ESO programme id 198.A-0708, PI M. Koss, allow a statistical comparison of AGN and non-AGN dominated galaxies in the local Universe, for example from the ALLSMOG APEX survey. As this programme mainly aimed at observing a statistical sample of nearby AGN, many of the galaxies observed are well-known galaxies, and these Phase 3 data can provide a valuable total power measurement of the CO(2-1) emission which then can be combined with interferometric observations obtained with ALMA. Additionally, the BASS (BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey) sample includes a variety of other ESO data products including hundreds of spectra with VLT/Xshooter, VLT/MUSE, and VLT/FORS2 with more information at the BASS survey website.
This BAT AGN release available via the Science Portal or programatically, makes the combined CO(2-1) spectra publicly available so users can derive further spectroscopic parameters, and compare them with other lines in these objects. The spectra either have a peak S/N>5 or reach depths of 0.5-2 mK rms for non-detections. Further details can be found in the data release paper by Koss et al. (2021) or in the accompanying release description.
First data release from the ESO VISTA Public Survey - Southern H-ATLAS Regions in Ks-band (SHARKS)
The Southern H-ATLAS Regions in Ks-band (SHARKS) is a deep Ks-band imaging survey conducted with the wide-field VIRCAM imager at the VISTA telescope. The project was granted 1200 hours of observing time under the ESO programme 198.A-2006, PI H. Dannerbauer, as one of seven approved second cycle VISTA Public Surveys.
It covers ~300 deg2, including large parts of the South Galactic Plane (SGP), GAMA-12h (G12) and GAMA-15h (G15) fields from the H-ATLAS survey, the largest Herschel program. The survey has been designed to provide the best possible counterpart identification for ∼90% of the sources detected at 0 < z < 3 by H-ATLAS, ASKAP, SKA and LOFAR; to produce a sample of strong lenses for cosmography studies; to study the evolution of the most massive structures in the Universe.
SHARKS DR1 consists of calibrated images and single band source catalogues from observations taken between March 2017 and January 2019. It covers a sky area of about 20 deg2, divided in 10 mosaics of ~2 deg2 each. The 10 mosaics are distributed as follows: four contiguous mosaics in the SGP-E region, and two unrelated mosaics each in the SGP-W, G15 and G12 fields. The mean depth reaches the expected Ks magnitude of ~22.7 (AB, 5sigma) with a mean seeing of ~1’’. The products are available via the ESO Science Portal or programmatically. More information about the release is available in the related documentation.
SHARKS DR1 has been produced in collaboration with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Wide-Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh.
25 October 2021
New Gaia-ESO radial velocity catalogue released (DR4.1)
Gaia-ESO is a Public Spectroscopic Survey carried out with GIRAFFE and UVES on the VLT between 2012 and 2018. The survey targeted more than 100,000 stars, with 115,000 actually observed by the end of the survey. These stars are selected across all major components of the Milky Way, from halo to star-forming regions, with the goal of providing an homogeneous overview of their kinematics and elemental abundance distributions.
With DR4.1, the Gaia-ESO team publishes a catalogue of radial velocities of more than 110,000 stars, covering 97% of all the objects whose spectra were previously published in December 2020 (DR4). The catalogue releasing the parameters for all the observed stars and the remaining 1D stacked spectra for additional 600 unique targets will be published in the forthcoming DR5. The full description of the current published catalogue and of the pipeline used to determine radial velocities can be found in the detailed release document.
The catalogue preview (histograms and metadata) can be found here. An example of a programmatic access query to the catalogue is available here. The catalogue can be queried also via the Catalogue Facility.
20 October 2021
VVVX DR1.1 published: releasing the entire Ks time series
The VISTA Cycle 2 ESO Public Survey project -VVV eXtended- PI D. Minniti, P. Lucas, is carried out with VIRCAM on VISTA in the JHKs filters and covers a total of ~1540 deg2 of the southern Galactic plane.
The VVVX DR1.1 complements DR1 by mainly providing i) the missing Ks time series and ii) the source lists generated from the pawprints published in DR1, which were observed between July 2016 and March 2018. The released data total about 9 TB. Science products generated from observations in the time interval from April 2018 to October 2019 are accessible in the already published DR2 release.
The time series data were taken in 'THIN' conditions, thus data with photometric zero points within 0.25 mag of the seasonal average value are accepted. The rather relaxed requirement on the image quality (seeing < 2.0 arcsec) has proven useful to deliver photometry for the bright stars also, that otherwise are saturated in data acquired with better seeing conditions.
More information regarding the release content is available in the documentation.
15 September 2021
Second imaging data release from the VISTA Cycle 2 ESO Public Survey VVVX
The VISTA Cycle 2 ESO Public Survey project -VVV eXtended- PI D. Minniti, P. Lucas, is carried out with VIRCAM on VISTA in the JHKs filters and covers a total of ~1540 deg2 of the southern Galactic plane.
This second data release contains observations taken between April 2018 and October 2019. They consist of both multi-filter JHKs observations and time series Ks data with photometric limit reaching typically Ks=17.5 AB mag.
The survey data in Ks that were taken prior to April 2018 remain to be released (VVVX DR1 contained data from the multi-colour JHKs OBs and J-only OBs). The VVVX team is currently working to releasing these data as soon as possible, in order to provide a continuous time series.
Data are available via the ASP and programmatically: 10776 tile images plus their associated weight maps and single-band source catalogues. In addition, the release contains the 64716 pawprint images.
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.
This and other new functionalities are fully detailed in a related archive news.
29 July 2021
Third and final data release of the Large Early Galaxy Census (LEGA-C) Spectroscopic Public Survey published
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 targets 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.
Photometric lightcurves for a total of 95 objects are now provided, 65 more than in the previous release (the lightcurves of 2 previously released transients have been removed from the catalogue as they do not qualify as PESSTO key-science targets).
Data are available via the ESO Catalogue Facility, or programmatically (the link brings your to a query example to find the lightcurve of SN2018ec), or via the Science Portal (specifically the catalogue preview gives you instantaneous access to the histograms of all the catalogues columns).
16 July 2021
First Data Release of the PHANGS-MUSE large programme
The PHANGS-MUSE project is an ESO Large Programme (PROGRAM ID: 1100.B-0651, PI: E. Schinnerer) which (including exposures from archival programs: 094.B-0321, 094.C-0623, 095.C-0473, 097.B-0640, 098.B-0551, 099.B-0242, 0100.B-0116) maps with MUSE 19 star forming spiral galaxies. This release provides combined mosaics of their central star-forming disk obtained by combining 5 to 15 MUSE pointings for each galaxy. In addition derived maps of emission line fluxes and kinematics as well as stellar kinematics are also included as ancillary files.
By combining the wide field of view offered by MUSE with the superb spatial resolution (with PSF between 0.7 and 1.0 arcsec obtained from a combination of AO and non-AO exposures), the PHANGS-MUSE observing campaign offers a comprehensive view of the chemo-dynamical evolution of the star formation process across the different environments, addressing timescales associated with star formation, quantifying the importance of stellar feedback, studying the chemical enrichment and mixing, and connecting the local conditions with the large-scale dynamics.
Two astrometrically aligned and flux calibrated mosaic cubes are provided for each object. One at the native resolution of MUSE, and one that has been homogenized such that all pointings across any individual galaxy and across wavelengths are convolved to a matched angular resolution. Further details are provided in the data release documentation. The total data volume of 1.15 TB is available via the ESO Archive Science Portal or programmatically.
6 July 2021
Third Data Release from the MATISSE/OCA-ESO Project (AMBRE): HARPS catalogue
The AMBRE collaboration between the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA, Nice) and ESO has the goal to analyse the wealth of stellar spectroscopic data in the ESO science archive using the MATISSE parametrisation algorithm to derive stellar atmospheric parameters (Recio-Blanco et al., 2006, MNRAS 370, 141, Worley et al. 2012, A&A 542A, 48, de Laverny et al. 2012, A&A 544A, 126, De Pascale (2014, A&A...570A..68).
This data release provides stellar radial velocity, effective temperature, surface gravity, mean metallicity and enrichment in alpha-elements for about 4480 stellar objects observed between October 2003 and October 2010 using HARPS (378 nm – 691 nm). More information can be found in the related release documentation.
Second Data Release from the MATISSE/OCA-ESO Project (AMBRE)
The AMBRE collaboration between the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA, Nice) and ESO has the goal to analyse the wealth of stellar spectroscopic data in the ESO science archive using the MATISSE parametrisation algorithm to derive stellar atmospheric parameters (Recio-Blanco et al., 2006, MNRAS 370, 141, Worley et al. 2012, A&A 542A, 48, de Laverny et al. 2012, A&A 544A, 126).
This data release provides stellar radial velocity, effective temperature, surface gravity, mean metallicity and enrichment in alpha-elements for about 6600 stellar objects observed between March 2000 and November 2010 using the VLT/UVES spectrograph. 51897 stellar spectra were analysed in total, resulting in the complete parameter set for about 20%. More information can be found in the related release documentation.
First data release from the GALACTICNUCLEUS survey
The goal of GALACTICNUCLEUS survey, ESO Large Programme 195.B-0283, PI Rainer Schödel, is to build a single-epoch high angular resolution (0.2”)
source catalogue of the Galactic Centre in the near infrared band J,H,Ks.
Data were acquired with HAWK-I between June 2015 and June 2018. They covered seven regions spread over the nuclear stellar disk, the inner Galactic bulge and the transition region between them, for a total area covered of about 0.3 deg2. The final catalogue includes accurate PSF photometry for 3.3x106 stars. The 5-sigma limiting AB magnitude for the different NIR bands are J~22, H~21 and Ks~21. The released catalogue also provides absolute coordinates for all the sources.
In addition to the source catalogue, this data release includes images and related error maps from which the catalogue was extracted.
Release of pipeline processed ESPRESSO 1D spectra products
This data release provides access to reduced scientific data obtained with ESPRESSO. This instrument is a highly-stabilised fibre-fed echelle spectrograph that can be fed with light from either a single or up to four Unit Telescopes simultaneously. It is installed at the incoherent combined Coudé facility of the VLT.
Nearly 2000 spectra obtained in all instrumental modes (HR, UHR, and MR) from the start of operations until March 2020 are now published via the ESO archive. The data consist of extracted, wavelength-calibrated and flux-calibrated 1-dimensional spectra with merged echelle orders. If several exposures on the same target are executed within the same observing template, the extracted and flux-calibrated spectra of the single exposures are combined into a co-added spectrum with increased signal-to-noise ratio. The combined spectrum becomes the primary product, while the single spectra are made available as associated files. The reduced science spectra come with an associated set of ancillary information which are described in detail in the accompanying release description.
The ESPRESSO data collection will grow with time. As new ESPRESSO data are acquired at the observatory, the reduced products will become available in monthly release cycles as soon as they are processed. The data products can be queried and downloaded using the ESO Archive Science Portal or the programmatic access.
New spectra, images, and transient catalog of the PESSTO public survey (DR4)
A new release of the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects (PESSTO) is available, including spectra and images from its ePESSTO extension, and the delivery of a new transient catalogue, globally covering 7 years of observations, from April 2012 to April 2019, for a total of 45GB.
This new release brings to 2323 the number of observed supernovae and optical transients, with calibrated 1D spectra for 2314 of them, doubling the number of objects previously published (1168 in the previous version).
Also doubled is the number of selected key targets (now 337) that were scheduled for follow-up time-series EFOSC2 optical spectroscopy, so to monitor the supernovae at the extremes of the known population e.g. the most luminous, the faintest, the fast declining, etc. The total number of spectra for the key targets is 3748, including the SOFI spectra taken for the brightest ones. SOFI imaging (broad-band JHKs) was nearly always taken when SOFI near infra-red spectra were taken.
For more details on the observing strategy, the data reduction, calibration, and quality, along with a table of the selected key targets, and the description of the catalogue, please refer to the comprehensive release description.
Note: an updated version of the PESSTO multi-epoch photometry catalogue published in DR3.1 is expected by the summer.
24 March 2021
First data released from the project 'Investigating stellar population in relics (INSPIRE)'
The INSPIRE project is an ESO Large Programme (ID: 1104.B- 0370, PI: C. Spiniello) which uses X-Shooter (in UVB, VIS, NIR band) to spectroscopically follow up 52 red ultra Compact Massive Galaxies selected from the KiDS VST ESO Public Survey. The goals of INSPIRE (Spiniello et al. 2021a, Spiniello et al. 2021b) is to obtain the first catalogue of spectroscopically confirmed relics in the redshift range 0.1<z<0.5, bridge the gap between the three local confirmed relics and the high-z red nuggets, use the final statistic on confirmed relics to put a stringent constraint on the predictions from simulations on the initial burst of star formation in galaxies.
This first release provides 76 1D spectra for 19 galaxies whose observations were completed. For each galaxy, there are four 1D spectra products: two UVB spectra and two VIS. For each object, the two pairs in each arm are extracted using either an aperture that includes 50% of the light or with an optimal extraction procedure on the entire slit. Together with the extracted 1D spectra, the combined UVB+VIS spectra, restframed and smoothed to a final resolution of FWHM = 2.52Å, are also published as ancillary files (these products were used for the stellar population analysis in S21b). The products contain measurements like redshift, stellar age and metallicity from the spectra in dedicated header keywords, which are listed in the detailed release description together with more details about the released products. The 1D spectra for the NIR arms and a comprehensive catalog of the galaxies properties will be included in a future release.
Second data release of the VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys (VEXAS)
The VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys (VEXAS, Spiniello & Agnello, 2019, A&A, 630) project aims at building wide and spatially homogeneous
multi-wavelength catalogues (from X- ray to radio) providing reference magnitudes, colors and morphological information for a large number of scientific uses. Currently the VEXAS catalogue is the widest and deepest public optical-to-IR photometric and spectroscopic database in the Southern Hemisphere, comprising more than 90 million objects with reliable photometry measured in at least one of the VISTA infrared bands, two of the WISE bands and three optical bands.
This second release provides a new version of the three VEXAS DR1 optical+infrared tables: VEXAS-DESW, VEXAS-PSW and VEXAS-SMW in which sources fainter than 25 mag have been removed and additional quality improvements were applied. Objects are now classified into stars, galaxies and quasars using an ensemble of thirty-two different machine learning models, based on three different algorithms and on different magnitude sets, training samples and classification problems (two or three classes). A new version of the spectroscopic table is also provided. In order to build a training sample as large as possible and as complete and clean as possible in all the three classes of objects, on top of SDSS, 5 additional surveys have been used in this new version (SDSS DR16, Ahumada et al. 2019; WiggleZ, Drinkwater et al. 2018; GAMA DR3 Baldry et al.2018; OzDES, Childress et al. 2017, 2QZ Croom et al. 2003 and 6dFFS DR3, Jones et al. 2009) to which strict selection criteria have been applied. The machine learning pipeline and main results on the classification are described in detail in Khramtsov et al. 2021, arXiv:2103.09257.
ESO Science Data Products standard version 7 published
Version 7 of the ESO Science Data Products standard is now published; highlights of the revisions are:
A new data format was introduced for single image products. It allows additional ways of packaging weightmap, background, etc in FITS extensions and will support future science data products from future VLT NIR imagers , e.g. ERIS.
White-light images associated with IFS cubes must now be identified with a unique product category.
In case of moving objects, more instructions are given on how to set up the source identifier.
Vector-valued fields are supported for catalogue data. There is a maximum limit of 1500 elements for these vectors.
For more detailed information, please consult the change record from the previous version, which is available in the document. The new version of the Science Data Products standard can be downloaded as PDF document.
The Phase 3 validation rules are currently being aligned with the SDP standard version 7.0. A summary of the implemented checks is available here.
4 February 2021
Fourth - and final - data release of the Spectroscopic Public Survey VANDELS
The fourth and final data release of the deep VIMOS survey of the CANDELS UDS and CDFS fields, VANDELS, is now available in the ESO Science Archive Facility.
The VANDELS survey (Programme id 194.A-2003, PI L. Pentericci and R. McLure) started data acquisition in November 2014 and was completed in March 2018 before the VIMOS decommissioning. It delivers high signal-to-noise (range: 10 -100), medium resolution (R~600) optical spectra (4800-10000 Å) for galaxies in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) and Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS) survey fields. The total area covered is 0.2 degree2.
Using robust photometric redshift pre-selection, VANDELS targeted ≈2100 galaxies in the redshift interval 1.0<z<7.0, with 85% of its targets selected to be at z≥3. VANDELS also targeted a substantial number of passive galaxies in the redshift interval 1.0<z<2.5. The magnitude range of the sample is HAB<24 for star-forming galaxies in the redshift interval 2.5<z<5.5, HAB<27 for Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) in the redshift interval 3.0<z<7.0, and HAB<22.5 for passive galaxies at redshifts 1.5<z<2.5.
Each target received between a minimum of 20 hours and a maximum of 80 hours of on-source integration time. The legacy of VANDELS consists of determining the key physical properties of high redshift galaxies such as their stellar population ages, metallicities and outflow velocities from detailed absorption-line studies.
This fourth data release consists of 2165 spectra (downloadable via the ESO Science Portal or programmatically), 1061 spectra in CDFS and 1104 in UDS field, respectively. DR4 totally replaces all products released in DR3 because of the new flux correction applied in the blue wavelength. In addition, DR4 provides 287 new spectra and 104 spectra of serendipitously observed objects.
In addition to the 1D spectral products, this final release contains also the catalogue with spectroscopic redshifts and the derived physical properties for each galaxy. The catalogue can be queried via the Catalog Facility or TAP.
More information about the release content can be found in the accompanying documentation and in Garilli et al., 2021, A&A, in press, arXiv:2101.07645.
01 February 2021
First Data Release from the VST survey of Early-type GAlaxieS (VEGAS)
VEGAS is a deep multi-band (u'g'r'i') imaging survey of bright (MB<-21mag) early-type galaxies in the local volume within 54 Mpc/h carried out with OmegaCam on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST, Capaccioli et al., 2005; see also the VEGAS website). Observations are based on the VST Guaranteed Time Observation assigned to the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics under programme ID runs: 089.B-0607(A), 090.B-0414(B,D), 091.B-0614(A), 092.B-0623(B,C,D), 094.B-0496(D), 095.B-0779(A), 096.B-0582(B), 097.B-0806(A,B), 098.B-0208(A), 099.B-0560(A), and 0100.B-0168(A).
This first date release publishes multi-band data for 10 fields, each of them covering a main galaxy and its close environment out to about 8-10 effective radii. The wide field of view, the long integration (ranging from 0.5 to 6.5 hours), and the high angular resolution of 0.21'' pixel-1 delivered by VST allow the light distribution to be mapped down to a surface brightness level of ~29 mag arcsec-2 in g'-band.
These 23 science images (and corresponding weight maps) covering an area of ~42 deg² are now available to the ESO community via the ESO Science Portal and programmatically. The total data volume is ~30Gb.
High-Resolution MUSE data of the inner region of NGC 7130 released
The Seyfert starburst galaxy NGC 7130 was targeted for commissioning and science verification of the MUSE Narrow Field Mode, in programmes 60.A-9100(K) and 60.A-9493(A), P.I. Marja Seidel.
The reduced data cube provides an angular resolution of 0.17 arcsec across a field of view of 7.5x7.5 arcsec2 covering the spectral range between 4750 and 9300 Å with a resolution of about 2.5 to 2.7 Å. First, the data was processed using the standard ESO pipeline, then individual exposures were selected, manually aligned and combined into the final data cube for a total of 2100 seconds exposure time. This provides an equivalent white-light point source sensitivity of 22.4 mag AB (at 5 sigma). The data with its associated white light image is available from the ESO Science Portal or programmatically.
Details on the observing programme and the data processing can be found in the data release documentation and in the associated publication Comerón et al. 2021, accepted in A&A, arXiv:2011.02937.
10 December 2020
Fourth data release (DR4) from the Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic Public Survey
The new data release from the Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey (GES) DR4 delivers about 190,000 stacked, quality-controlled, 1-d spectra (R between 18000 and 54000) of 114,500 unique stellar targets. These stars were observed with GIRAFFE and UVES from 31.12.2011 to 26.01.2018, during the entire time execution of the survey. These targets were selected from all the major structural components of the Milky Way: bulge, thick and thin discs, halo, including open star clusters of all ages and masses. The 1-D spectra from GES DR4 augment or update the spectra published in the previous data releases, which included observations up to July 2014 (~44000 spectra for ~25000 objects).
A catalog of radial velocities is being finalized and will be released in the subsequent data release (DR4.1), together with the 1D stacked spectra for additional ~600 unique targets.
The final data release from the Gaia-ESO survey containing the catalog with the measured stellar parameters will be released later in 2021.
Second Data Release from the Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) ESO VISTA Public Survey
Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) is a survey (programme 198.A-2008, PI M. Nonino) belonging to the second cycle of ESO VISTA Public Surveys. It is aimed at observing 20 massive galaxy clusters covering in total ~30 deg2 in the infrared Y, J, and Ks bands. Those clusters have also been observed in many ground- and space-based programmes (e.g. CLASH, RELICS, HFF/ BUFFALO). The survey will mainly explore galaxy evolution over a wide, and still largely unexplored, diversity of cluster environments.
This second release adds new data of 15 galaxy clusters to the previous DR1. It contains tile images and related source lists from data collected over the time period from October 2016 to March 2020. The tile images reach a typical sensitivity in AB magnitude of ~23.5 in Y, ~23.4 in J, and ~22.4 in Ks. The total volume of the second data release is 1.3TB.
Second Data Release of the Fornax Deep Survey (FDS): catalogue of sources and additional imaging covering 27 sq. degree on the Fornax cluster
The second data release from the Fornax Deep Survey with VST projects is now available on the ESO archive and it is accessible to the community via the Science Portal, programmatically, and via the Catalogue Query Interface. This data release follows the publication of the refereed paper by Cantiello et al. (2020).
This second release provides ugri-bands photometric and morphological parameters for 1.7 million sources over the ∼21 square degree area of the Fornax Cluster centered on the bright central galaxy NGC 1399. Additionally, photometric and morphological parameters in the gri-bands are provided for 3.1 million sources located on a wider area of ∼27 square degrees which extends to the direction of the galaxy NGC 1316, also in the Fornax cluster.
The catalogues contain sources detected down to a 5-sigma magnitude limits which correspond to 24.1mag, 25.4mag, 24.9mag, 24.0mag in u-, g-, r-, and i-band, respectively (calculated for point sources). The total volume of the released catalogs is 1.2Gb.
The second release also increments the previous image release with ~7.5Gb of images and weight maps for the FDS field n. 8 that have been processedand calibratedby the AstroWISE.
ESO complete in-house re-processing of 20 years of UVES 1D spectra
As part of ESO’s efforts to offer science data products to its community via the ESO science archive facility, all the spectroscopic data acquired since the beginning of UVES operations at the VLT from March 2000 to March 2020, i.e. 20 years, have been reprocessed. Whenever possible, 1D spectra have been stacked at the OB level. The master calibrations associated with the science data before March 2015 have been reprocessed for better quality and consistency. Due to this reprocessing, some of the early science products not available before are now provided. All 1D spectra products are available from the ESO archive, have quality control plots and associated 2D extracted spectral images.
The UVES stacked 1D spectra products are built from single exposure 1D spectra, whose scientific quality is similar to that of the UVES products, which were previously available in the data stream. These single exposure 1D spectra products are now served on request as ancillary files.
The UVES reprocessed 1D spectra products can be discovered and downloaded via ASP or programmatically. More details are provided in the accompanying documentation.
9 October 2020
New band-merged source catalog released by the VVV survey
A new version of the VVV VISTA Public Survey source catalog is now available from the ESO Archive. The imaging data in the ZYJHKs bands from which the source catalogue is extracted are acquired under ESO programme 179.B-2002 before the 26th of September 2015.
The source catalog covers the full area of the VVV survey on the Milky Way bulge and disk. It comprises 348 survey tiles for a total of 540 deg2 where more than 590 million sources are detected. Compared to the previous published versions, this catalogue provides additional data, it includes two separate epochs of contemporaneous JHKs photometry and two separate epochs of contemporaneous ZY photometry.
The VVV images utilized for the source extraction were processed with pipeline version v1.3 or grater by the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU). These higher versions of the pipeline implement significant improvements to the data quality, such as improved photometric calibration procedures and more extensive Quality Control to identify bad data. Source catalogs were then created by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
This new data release includes a flux map at 870 μm for the galaxy M83 (NGC 5236). It is obtained from the combination of the observations taken with the APEX Large APEX Bolometer Camera (LABOCA) under the ESO programme id 081.C-0827(A), PI A. Lundgren, between 2008-06-19 and 2008-06-30.
The total exposure time of the flux map is 10.5 hours, it has a signal to noise ratio of 47 in the galaxy central region, while the inner spiral arms are detected with a signal to noise ratio of more than 3. The atmospheric window of 870 μm, in which LABOCA operates, provides the opportunity to study the dust in the interstellar medium and the grain size distribution.
Joint first and second data releases of the X-SHOOTER Spectral Library (XSL)
The X-SHOOTER Spectral Library project (XSL, http://xsl.u-strasbg.fr/) aims to build a new, moderate-resolution stellar spectral library for use in stellar population modelling. Once completed the XSL will represent a significant improvement on current empirical stellar spectral libraries in terms of stellar parameters and wavelength coverage. The survey was conducted in two phases: a two-semester pilot survey (084.B-0869 and 085.B-0751) followed up by a Large Programme (189.B-0925), PI S.C Trager. The entire survey delivers spectra of a total of nearly 700 unique stars.
The joint science spectra products from the first and second XSL data releases are now available to the community via the ESO archive. The second data release (DR2) contains all the spectra obtained from the six semesters of the ESO Large Programme and consist of three segments that were observed simultaneously (UVB, VIS, NIR). If combined, the 1D spectra products cover the wavelength range between 300 nm and 2.45 μm, at a spectral resolving power close to R = 10 000. The spectra were corrected for instrument transmission and telluric absorption, and they were also corrected for wavelength-dependent flux-losses in 85% of the cases. The final spectra were corrected for radial velocity and are provided in the rest-frame (with wavelengths in air). The DR2 release supersedes the first data release (DR1) from 2014 (initially released via the XSL website only and now also available in the ESO archive as of October 2020), with a larger number of spectra (813 observations of 666 stars) and with a more extended wavelength coverage as the data from the near-infrared arm of the X-SHOOTER spectrograph are now included. The total volume of XSL DR2 is 0.7 GB. In DR1, 246 spectra of 237 unique stars were presented, which were observed during the pilot program, for a wavelength range that was restricted to the two optical arms of X-SHOOTER (300–1024 nm), for a total volume of 140 MB.
More information about the data release contents can be found in the accompanying documentation [PDF DR2, PDF DR1]. The data products are available via the science portal and programmatically [data DR2, data DR1].
29 September 2020
First Data Release of the SINFONI Survey for Unveiling the Physics and the Effect of Radiative feedback (SUPER)
The first data release of the SINFONI Survey for Unveiling the Physics and the Effect of Radiative feedback (SUPER, Circosta et al. 2018; ESO Large Programme 196.A-0377, PI: Mainieri) is now available to the community on ESO Archive via the Science Portal or programmatically.
This release consists of 20 SINFONI cubes targeting z=2-2.5 Type-1 AGNs in the H (or H+K) band. The adaptive optics module was employed during the IFU observations, abating the effects of atmospheric turbulence down to a superb angular resolution of 0.2 arcsecond (corresponding to ~2 kpc at the AGN redshifts). In combination with the long exposures (of the order of 1-7 hour), the data provides 3D spatially resolved high-quality maps of the Hβ and [OIII] emission lines and of the star emission from the AGN host galaxies.
This consists of 97 high quality images (and of the corresponding weight maps) obtained by stacking u’, g’, r’, and i’-bands data collected with OmegaCAM on the VST from February 2013 to November 2017.
With exposure times ranging from 2 to 12 hours over an area of ~28 square degrees, this survey is a legacy data-set for studies of members of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster and the infalling Fornax A Group down to a surface brightness limit of ~28 mag/arcsec2 (1-sigma surface brightness over a 1 arcsecond2 area) and opens a new parameter regime to investigate the role of the cluster environment in shaping the properties of its galaxy population.
In these release, 181 Gb of (compressed) fits files reduced using the AstroWISE system are present. Catalogues with the complete sample of sources including dwarf galaxies part of the cluster, globular clusters, and background galaxies will be provided in forthcoming releases.
New FEROS 1D spectra products published in the ESO Archive
Archive users are informed that the in-house processed 1D spectra products for FEROS are now available for the months July, August, September, and October 2019. A total of 1432new reduced 1D spectra have been added to the FEROS collection and are now downloadable from the archive science pages or programmatically. These newly processed science products complement the set of the already available ~60,000 1D spectra for FEROS. This service is now resumed following the suspension in February 2020.
20 July 2020
Second data release of the Next Generation Transit Survey
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a ground based exoplanet survey designed to detect Neptune and super-Earth sized planets orbiting around bright stars, using the transit method. The NGTS facility consists of 12 fully-robotic 20 cm f/2.8 telescopes located at the ESO site on Paranal, Chile. Each telescope has a 2.8x2.8 deg2 field of view and is equipped with a custom filter with a bandpass of 520-890nm, which increases sensitivity to late-K and early-M stars.
This second data release (DR2) includes 72 separate fields that have been completed from the start of commissioning in September 2015, till April 2018. The data of the 24 fields already provided within DR1 have been reprocessed with an improved version of the reduction pipeline. A source catalogue down to 16th magnitude is provided, together with the light curves obtained with aperture photometry in addition to the reduced, astrometrically calibrated, stacked dithered images. More than six hundred thousand sources were monitored with a 13 second cadence, collecting almost 110 billion photometric measurements in total. The overall data volume is about 4 Terabyte.
Release of pipeline processed and telluric corrected KMOS 3D data cubes
This data release provides 3D data cubes obtained from KMOS, the K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph. The instrument is located at the VLT UT1 telescope and has 24 image slicer Integral Field Units (IFUs) that can be placed independently in the patrol field of 7.2 arcmin diameter. Each IFU has 14 slices with 14 spatial pixels along each slice and a field-of-view of 2’’.8x2’’.8 which gives a spatial resolution of 0’’.2. Spectral resolving power depends on the grating and is between 2000 and 4200. This initial release consists of observations from October 2013 (i.e. start of operations) until February 2020. The content of the release grows with time as new data are being acquired and processed.
Data have been reduced using the KMOS pipeline version 2.7.3 or higher. Data reduction is executed first for each IFU containing an object. It includes sky subtraction, flat fielding, wavelength calibration, flux calibration, and cube reconstruction. Telluric absorption features in the individual cube spectra are corrected. For this, an atmospheric model is fit to the closest-in-time telluric standard star measurement using the molecfit software. This model is scaled with the airmass difference between science observation and standard star measurement and applied to the extracted spectra. Flux calibration is applied using the zero-point measurement from the same standard star, without assessment of the photometric conditions. Note that all standard stars serve both as telluric and as photometric standards.
The KMOS data collection is current to March 2020, when observations were halted because of the Coronavirus-induced lockdown. It will grow again with time as observations will resume, with future processing on a roughly monthly cadence. More details about the KMOS data and their structure are available in the associated Phase 3 data release description.
The KMOS data cubes tagged "KMOS" can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 generic query form which provides access to all Phase 3 data, or the Phase 3 spectral data query form with query parameters suited to harvest 3D cube data. KMOS data can be browsed and accessed via the ASP web interface or programmatically.
18 June 2020
VMC DR5.1: Incremental high level products released for the Vista Magellanic Cloud Survey (VMC)
This data release (DR5.1) is based on the observations acquired between February 2010 and October 2016 of 42 VMC survey tiles encompassing the whole Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the Magellanic Bridge and the Magellanic Stream components of the survey. The total sky coverage is ~40 deg2 in the SMC, ~ 20 deg2 in the Bridge and ~3 deg2 in the Stream. This release adds reduced and calibrated deep products (co-added tile images and related single band catalogues), together with a multi-band (YJKs) aperture matched, epoch merged source catalogue for more than 14.6 million sources, three multi epoch single band catalogues, a catalogue of variable sources (39406 records) and a PSF photometry catalogue. The total volume of this data release is about 166 Gb.
The data published within the VMC DR5.1 release are produced by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU).
More detailed information is available in the accompanying documentation.
The KiDS DR4.1 catalogue is an update of the DR4.0 catalogue which, due to a small bug in the alignment of the mask images during the multi-band catalogue production, has incorrect photometry flags for a small percentage of sources on 196 tiles. Those 196 updated tiles have been provided as KiDS DR4.1.
Please refer to the comprehensive data release description for the list of affected tiles and further information.
ESO Science Data Products standard version 6 published
Version 6 of the ESO Science Data Products standard is now published. It is a complete revision and restructuring of the previously published version available on the ESO Phase 3 web site. It now integrates the information published as separate addenda and in the Phase 3 FAQs also. A major effort has been devoted to improve the readability and clarity of the text. Errors and typos have been corrected. The new version of the standard can be downloaded as PDF document.
The Phase 3 validation rules have been aligned with the SDP standard version 6.0 and are now also published. A summary of the implemented checks is available here.
23 April 2020
ESO Archive Science Portal 2.0 released
The ESO Archive Science Portal allows browsing and exploration of archive content using an intuitive interactive user interface that supports iterative queries or by direct database and Virtual Observatory (VO) access using user scripts and VO-aware tools. The latest version, released on 23 April 2020, provides the features and improvements listed below.
Preview capabilities for both data cubes and catalogues have been added. The quality of data cubes can be inspected interactively by extracting 1D spectra within a circle of configurable size at any position covered by the observation. Catalogue source positions are overlaid with the corresponding imaging data and one-dimensional distributions are displayed for each catalog parameter. The resolution of image previews has been enhanced.
A cutout service for clipping the original full-size datasets with respect to position or spectral range has been newly implemented and is accessible from the interactive user interface as well as programmatically, via the SODA and DataLink VO-compliant services.
User-defined search regions of arbitrary polygonal shape are now supported including interactive drawing and uploading/saving contours from/to disk.
The new download portal provides several improvements for greater flexibility including the option to download large sets of science spectra without associated ancillary data, to download all datasets of your query in one ZIP archive, and to use browser-specific download managers.
The DataLink service, which provides a standard way to declare relationships between a primary dataset and related files, e.g. provenance, derived products, and ancillary files, has been improved with the selection of calibration reference files for raw data and providing full support for proprietary data.
Interactive documentation of the new programmatic features is provided in the form of Python Jupyter notebooks.
Users are encouraged to leave their feedback via the dedicated community forum.
18 March 2020
First data release of the MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG)
The MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies project (MAGG, ESO programme ID: 197.A-0384, PI: M. Fumagalli) provides the community with high quality VLT/MUSE cubes centered on bright redshift z~3.5 quasars (Lofthouse et al. 2019). These absorbers were discovered in archival high-to-medium resolution spectra of the quasars collected, among others, with UVES and XSHOOTER.
The primary goal of this ESO large programme is to probe the distribution of gas around intermediate redshift galaxies by linking known optically thick absorbers and the galaxies newly discovered by MUSE. This first data release contains 23 MUSE cubes. Each cube results from the combination of a total of 4 hours on source obtained in sub-arcsecond seeing conditions. The dept of this data allows to detect 90% of the point source line emitters brighter than an integrated line flux of 3x10-18 erg/s/cm2.
New data release (DR5) of the ESO Public Survey VISTA Hemisphere Survey
The VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS, ESO Programme ID: 179.A-2010, PI R. McMahon) is a wide area - multi band - near infrared survey, which when combined with other VISTA public surveys, will result in the coverage of the whole southern celestial hemisphere (Declination < 0; 20.000 deg2), to a depth 30 times fainter than 2MASS/DENIS in at least two filters (J and Ks), with a minimum exposure time of 60 seconds per filter and a median 5-sigma point source depth of AB = 20.8 and 20.0 in J and Ks filters respectively.
This fifth data release contains a multi-band source catalogue made of 11370 catalogue tiles obtained from Y, J, H and Ks band observations taken over a 8 year period, from the start of the survey in November 2009 to the end of March 2017. There are a total of 1,374,207,485 sources including sources detected in a single waveband. The total sky coverage in at least one waveband is 16,730 deg2. In addition to the multi-band catalogue, DR5 contains the first public ESO release of pawprints, tiles, weight maps and single band source lists for observations obtained in the date range from October 2015 to March 2017. This data release also includes image products of observations taken from April 2015 to September 2015, which were previously released in data release DR4, and are now reprocessed with a more recent version of the CASU pipeline software (version 1.5). More information about the release content can be found in the associated documentation.
The final data release of the VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Public Survey: VIKING DR4
The VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Public Survey (VIKING, ESO programme ID: 179.A-2005, PIs: A. Edge and W. Sutherland) is a wide area (covering a final area of 1350 deg2), intermediate-depth (5-sigma detection limit J~21 on Vega system) near-infrared imaging survey, in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks. The sky coverage has maximum overlap with the Kilo-Degree Survey KiDS in the optical bands.
This fourth and final VIKING data release covers all of the highest quality data taken during the survey to its completion and, when combined with the first three releases, includes all fields that met the team’s quality control thresholds in seeing (< 1.3”) and atmospheric transmission (thin cirrus or clearer). This release contains 935 tiles with coverage in all five VIKING filters, 891 of which have a deep co-add in J, and an additional 44 with at least two filters where the second OB was not executed or one filter in an OB was of poor quality. The aperture matched multi-band catalogue includes a total of ~100 millions sources (including low-reliability single-band detections), with magnitudes, colours and additional parameters providing information on the nature of each source detection.
More information about this data release is available in the associated release description.
27 February 2020
First data release of the MUSE Library of Stellar Spectra
The MUSE Library of Stellar Spectra (Ivanov et al. 2019) provides the community with a set of 1D high signal-to-noise spectra with reliable continuum shapes, which populate all major sequences on the Hertzsprung-Russell, with 3-6 bright stars per spectral type.
This first data release contains 35 high-quality MUSE spectra. These stars cover the range of T_eff between 2600 and 33000K, of log(g) between 0.6 and 4.5, and of [Fe/H] from -1.22 to 0.55. The 1D spectra cover a wavelength range from 4800 to 9300 Angstrom, with a resolving power varying from 1750 to 3750, and - given the IFU spectral capabilites of MUSE - are not subject to slit-losses.
First data release of the VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys (VEXAS)
The VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys (VEXAS, 'Spiniello & Agnello, 2019, A&A, 630') project aims at providing photometric catalogues with the most uniform spatial coverage, in the multi-wavelength sky for various scientific uses, for example object classification (e.g. quasars, galaxies, and stars; high-z galaxies, white dwarfs), photometric redshifts of large galaxy samples and identification of exotic objects (e.g. extremely red objects and lensed quasars).
This first data release covers the Southern Galactic Hemisphere (SGH) and objects below the Galactic plane, b<-20 deg. It comprises seven cross-matched multi-wavelength photometric catalogues where each object has a match in at least two surveys, plus a reliable photometry in at least three bands. In the current release, the two main extragalactic surveys on the ESO Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) - the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and the VISTA Kilo Degree Infrared Galaxy Survey (VIKING) - are cross-matched with several high legacy wide-sky photometric surveys in the optical (the Dark Energy Survey, the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System and SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey), far infrared (the Wide-Infrared Survey Explorer), X-ray (ROSAT All Sky Survey and the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Survey) and radio domain (SUMSS). Finally, the released catalogue includes the cross-matching with spectroscopic data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 6 degrees Field Galaxy Survey. As of today, the VEXAS catalogues are the widest and deepest public optical-to-IR photometric and spectroscopic catalogues covering the Southern Hemisphere.
Publication of imaging products from the 'Accretion Discs in Halpha with OmegaCam - ADHOC' observing programme
The ADHOC programme (096.C-0730(A) and 097.C-0749(A), PI G. Beccari) is equivalent to an OmegaCAM mini-survey targeting circumstellar discs in nearby Galactic star-forming regions. The scientific goal of this mini-survey is the study of the star formation history of several star-forming regions using deep, wide field, multi-band observations in the optical filters u, g, r, i and Hα, with depth reaching 21 AB mag in r. A total of eight star-forming regions in the Galaxy were observed.
This first data release includes reduced images and single-band sources list for two out of the targeted eight regions, in all the available bands. The two regions covered by science data products in the current release are Gamma Vel (08:09:00 -43:20:00) and Orion A (05:28:00 -07:15:00) for a total of almost 170 sq. deg covered. The products for the additional star-forming regions, including e.g. Lupus, Upper-Sco, Haffner 18, will be made available in future releases.
New data release of spectra and catalogue from the VANDELS ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey
VANDELS is a deep Public Spectroscopic Survey targeting high-redshift galaxies in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) and Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS) survey fields using the VIMOS spectrograph. The goal is to obtain spectra with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio to derive stellar population ages, metallicities and outflows velocities from absorption line studies, allowing a detailed investigation of the physics of galaxies in the early Universe. Within an area of 0.2 deg2, the survey aims at delivering ~2100 high signal-to-noise spectra of star-forming galaxies in the redshift range 1 < z < 7, with 85% of its targets selected to be at z >= 3, and passive galaxies in the redshift range 1 < z < 2.5.
This third data release (DR3) is adding to the available VANDELS collection data taken until December 2017 under the ESO run numbers 194.A-2003(E-T). It consists of 533 1D extreacted spectra provided together with their associated 2D spectra. DR3 provides spectra of 412 additional targets and 121 spectra with increased exposure times with respect to the previous release. In total the VANDELS collection now includes 1774 spectra (897 in CDFS and 877 in UDS), out of which 1607 1D spectra have received 100% of their targeted exposure time.
In addition to the 1D spectra, the release contains a catalogue of derived spectroscopic redshifts and associated reliability flag, among other useful source parameters. More information about the release content can be found in the accompanying documentation.
Final imaging data release of the VST Public Survey VPHAS+
The primary goal of the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+, PI J. E. Drew) is to collect single-epoch ugri broad-band and Hα narrow-band photometry across the southern Galactic Plane within the latitude range -5 < b < +5 with typical 5-sigma sensitivities for point sources down to 21 mag in Vega or fainter.
This fourth data release includes reduced images and their related source lists taken in the time interval from November 2015 to August 2018, when the survey terminated. By releasing this additional three years of observations, DR4 adds almost 4TB of data to the VPHAS+ collection, effectively doubling the sky area coverage. In total, approximately 2080 deg2 are now covered in all survey filters, which is 92% of the originally planned survey footprint.
Data can be browsed and downloaded from the ESO Science Portal or programmatically. A more detailed description of the release can be found in the accompanying documentation. By accessing the VPHAS+ products, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VST public survey projects and their collaborators, including CASU.
18 Octorber 2019
FEROS in-house processed data products not published since February 2019
Archive users are informed that the generation of the in-house processed science data products for FEROS is currently suspended since February 2019. ESO is working on an improved version of the pipeline and the newly generated products will become available via the ESO archive interfaces in the incoming months. A new announcement will be posted once the publication of the reprocessed FEROS products is resumed.
08 October 2019
First data release from the VISTA second cycle Public Survey VEILS
The VISTA Extragalactic Infrared Legacy Survey (VEILS) is a deep J and Ks-band transient and wide-field survey being conducted using the VIRCAM camera with the primary goals of understanding the epoch of reionisation, the build-up of massive galaxies, and constraining the cosmological equation of state using both Type 1a supernovae and AGN dust lag measurements. VEILS is covering 9 sq-deg of the extragalactic sky over three fields: XMM-LSS, CDFS and ELAIS-S1.
This first data release contains pawprint images (239 in J-band, 225 in Ks-band) and deep stacked pawprints (72 in total over the 3 cosmological fields), together with associated confidence maps and single-band J and Ks source lists. The breakdown of the number of epochs per pointing and band associated with each cosmological field is available in the release description document. Band-merged J and Ks cross-matched source lists for each of the 36 pairs are also provided in this data release.
The VEILS DR1 data products are available from the ESO Archive Science Portal or programmatically. More details about the release content can be found in the associated Phase 3 data release description. By accessing the VEILS DR1 products, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including CASU.
26 September 2019
UVES in-house processed data products not published since June 2019
The
PIs of ESO observing programmes with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle
Spectrograph (UVES) are informed that the generation of the in-house
processed science data products
is currently suspended since June 2019. ESO is working in reprocessing
the entire UVES data holding with improved algorithms and master
calibrations. The newly generated products will become available via
the ESO interfaces in the incoming months. A new announcement
will be posted once the publication of the reprocessed UVES products
is resumed.
26 September 2019
Deep MUSE IFU cubes from observations of eight nearby edge-on galaxies released
Deep IFU data cubes are now released for a sample of eight nearby edge-on galaxies. These galaxies were observed with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) integral field unit at the VLT, under the ESO programmes 096.B-0054(A) and 097.B-0041(A) - PI S. Comeron - with the aim of studying the formation mechanism of the thick discs in these objects. The galaxies included in the current sample are: ESO 157-49, ESO 443-21, ESO 469-15, ESO 544-27, IC 217, IC 1553, PGC 28308 and PGC 30591.
These deep science data cubes are characterized by long exposure times, typically three hours, and careful removal of the sky background from the target exposures rather than offset skies. Raw data cubes were processed using the MUSE pipeline version 2.2, with typical 5-sigma sensitivities in the final reduced cubes reaching point-sources as faint as 25 mag in AB. More information on the reduction and calibration process are available in the release description.
This release containing both deep data cubes and respective images is available via the Science Portal and programmatically.
22 August 2019
Mapping the Milky Way bulge with VVV. The deep J,Ks catalogue based on PSF photometry is now released
The Milky Way Bulge PSF Photometry project provides a comprehensive census of the stellar populations of the inner ~300 deg2 of the Galaxy, using J and Ks band observations obtained with VIRCAM on VISTA from the VVV ESO Public Survey.
The main scientific product of this data release is a deep and accurate photometric catalogue of ~ 600 million sources that results from performing the PSF-fitting photometry on the J, Ks band images of the 196 survey tiles covering the Galactic bulge. The catalog contains photometric completeness and reddening information. Imaging products and the respective single band source lists are also provided with the release. With a limiting magnitude of 20 in Ks and 21 in the J band, this new photometric catalog allows studies of the stellar populations in the Milky Way bulge, their stellar ages and star formation history.
This data release represents a very valuable scientific resource for the entire community: the catalogue records are accessible via both the Catalogue Query Interface and the programmatic access service. The whole content of the Phase 3 MW-BULGE-PSFPHOT DR1 release, both catalogue and VISTA imaging products, is available via the Archive Science Portal as well as programmatically.
More detailed information on the release content are available in the release documentation. By accessing the MW-BULGE-PSFPHOT DR1 release, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including CASU.
9 August 2019
First data release from the VISTA second cycle Public Survey VINROUGE
The primary goals of VINROUGE (Vista Near infra-Red Observations Uncovering Gravitational wave Events, PI N. Tanvir) are to locate and characterize the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave discovered events. This is achieved through wide field, multi-filter (Y, J, Ks) imaging of the error regions with VIRCAM on VISTA. This first data-release contains imaging and catalogues obtained during the follow-up of three gravitational wave triggers during the second LIGO/Virgo science run (O2). These triggers were two black hole mergers GW 170809 and GW 170814, and the kilonova transient GW 170817. For the latter, the gravitational wave counterpart was detected and identified as a binary neutron star merger. The observations of the three different fields cover respectively 17 deg2, ~27 deg2 and 3.5 deg2.
Other data products associated with the follow-up of the Kilonova event on 17-08-2017 were previously released on 17 Oct 2017 (VISIR observations) and on 18 Dec 2017 (NaCO) under the Phase 3 collection GW170817.
The VINROUGE DR1 data products are available from the ESO Archive Science Portal or programmatically. More details about the release content can be found in the associated Phase 3 data release description. By accessing the VINROUGE DR1 products, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including CASU.
2 August 2019
New release from the VISTA Magellanic Survey (VMC DR5) available
The VISTA Magellanic Survey (VMC) led by principal investigator M. Cioni aims at the determination of the spatially resolved star formation history and the three-dimensional geometry of the Magellanic Cloud system. The sensitivity in Y, J and Ks filters has been designed to reach sources below the oldest main-sequence turn off point of the stellar population and through the multi-epoch coverage to measure accurate Ks mean magnitudes for pulsating variable stars like RR Lyrae and Cepheids.
This new data release provides the complete set of observations covering the Small Magellanic Cloud field, ~40 deg2, it also includes tiles from the Bridge, ~20 deg2 and the Stream, 3 deg2, for a total of 42 VMC survey tiles.
DR5 includes data taken between Feb 2010 and Nov 2016, providing both newly released observations and updated versions of previously released data for the mentioned area, which have been reprocessed by CASU with a newer version of the pipeline, v1.5 with improved photometric calibration. In total there are 1075 individual tile images (one per observation) and in addition their corresponding pawprints and source lists. Each survey tile has at least two observations in Y and J and 11 in Ks.
Catalogue release from the VVV survey: the VVV Infrared Astrometric Catalogue (VIRAC) version 1
With this data release, the VISTA VVV survey (179.B-2002) publishes the VVV near-infrared Astrometric Catalog (VIRAC) that contains proper motions of stars measured during five years of observations, from 2010 to 2015. The catalogue contains ZYJHKs band merged magnitudes (single epoch, wherein the Ks magnitude is a mean value) and proper motion measurements for 312,587,642 unique sources detected in the multi-epoch imaging campaign covering 560 deg2 of the Milky Way bulge and southern disk. VIRAC includes 119 million high quality proper motion measurements, out of which 47 million have statistical uncertainties below 1 mas yr-1. The VIRAC photometric and astrometric calibrations are both derived from the 2MASS Point Source Catalogue.
Together with the catalog, the VVV survey team releases all the single epoch VISTA Ks band pawprint products and their confidence maps, from which the single epoch measurements originate. These are 156206 single epoch images for a total volume of 14.56 TB (including ancillary data). The data reduction and calibration procedures for individual epochs are described in the VVV DR4 release. This catalogue release complements that from the Gaia satellite by providing kinematic information in the heavily optically obscured parts of the Galactic plane.
The scientific use of this dataset spans from the studies of the Galactic structure and kinematics, to that of nearby objects and kinematic distance measurements. The catalogue records are available via the Catalogue Query Interface; the whole content of the VIRAC release, both catalog and VISTA pawprint products are accessible via the Archive Science Portal. More detailed information on the catalogue content and calibrations, and on the image products are available in the release documentation.
By accessing the VIRAC version 1 products, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including CASU (Cambridge, http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk).
21 May 2019
Second data release of the Large Programme 'Dissecting GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies (GASP)'
This is the second data release from the ESO Large Program 'Dissecting GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies' (196.B-0578, PI: B.Poggianti - http://web.oapd.inaf.it/gasp/). It completes the earlier one and provides deep MUSE 3D cubes observed in wide field mode and natural seeing plus ancillary products, comprising the observations taken from P99 to P101.
The scientific goal of the large programme is to study galaxies at z = 0.04-0.07 in different environments. For each target galaxy, the released science data products are the reduced and combined MUSE 3D data cubes that can be queried and downloaded using the Archive Science Portal.
The 3D science data cubes come with additional associated products. These products are extracted 1D spectra plus associated maps of the emission-line fluxes for the Halpha and Hbeta emission, the Halpha 2D line-of-sight velocity field, the average star formation rate in four age bins, as well as luminosity-weighted stellar age and stellar mass density maps.
A more detailed description of the Large Program and a comprehensive data documentation can be found here.
21 May 2019
New release of imaging and multi-band catalogue data from VST ATLAS Public Survey
The ESO Public SurveyATLAS with VST is targeting 4700 square degrees of the southern sky in u,g,r,i,z to depths comparable to those of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey SDSS (r~22). Its wide wavelength coverage, from the u- to z-band complements the VISTAVHS and VIKING Surveys in YJHK bands.
This fourth data release provides new stacked reduced images and associated source lists for the period Oct 2014 to July 2017 and reprocessed stacked reduced images, associated source lists and the band-merged catalogue from the beginning of observations in August 2011 to July 2017. DR4 data contain a global photometric calibration based on Gaia. The basic data reduction of the VST imaging was carried out at the Cambridge Astronomical Surveys Unit (CASU), while the band merged catalogue was produced by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at Edinburgh.
The data products are available from the ESO Archive Science Portal. More details about the release content can be found in the associated Phase 3 data release description. Moreover the band-merged catalogue data, containing 155 million records, can be queried via the dedicated Catalog Interface.
18 April 2019
Calibration issues for the HARPS data products taken between 2019-Feb-02 and 2019-Apr-16
Due to a bug in the pipeline recipe, all reduced science data which used the Fabry Perot as simultaneous calibration source in the time frame Feb 2nd to April 16th at 13:14 UT exhibit a radial velocity offset, which in the last days amounted to -13.6 m/s.
We are working in reprocessing the data and making the newly generated versions available via the ESO interfaces. A new Archive News will inform you when all affected data will have been cured.
21 March 2019
The UVES Spectral Quasar Absorption Database (SQUAD) Data Release 1 (DR1)
The UVES SQUAD DR1 comprises fully reduced, continuum-fitted high-resolution spectra of quasars with redshifts z = 0–5, with the primary goal of enabling statistical studies of large quasar and absorber samples at high resolution. DR1 includes 467 quasar spectra from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) on the ESO-VLT. These quasars have at least one exposure in the ESO UVES archive (longer than 100 sec) that was observed before 30th June 2008. All exposures longer than 100 sec observed before 17th November 2016 for these quasars were then included in the final, combined spectra in DR1. In total, 3088 exposures were selected and successfully processed, with a total exposure time of 10 million seconds (2803 hrs; an average of 5.9 hrs per quasar).
The spectra are available from the ESO Science Portal or Programmatically. More details about the release content can be found in the associated Phase 3 data release description. Ancillary data are provided to allow users to reproduce, or improve, the full data reduction, processing and exposure combination to form the final spectra. The full database description, quasar catalogue, scientific applications of the spectra and a catalogue of the damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) in the DR1 spectra are presented in Murphy et al., 2019, MNRAS, 482, 3458.
18 March 2019
Fourth release of UltraVISTA Public Survey data
UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. This fourth UltraVISTA data release comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters, as well as single-band and dual-mode source lists. The data release also contains a five-band merged catalogue, created from the individual Ks-selected source lists.
The release is based on the observations carried out from 4 December 2009 to 29 June 2016, corresponding to 58138 individual images. The total exposure time contributing to this release is 1287.5 hours, and the total survey area is close to 1.9 sq.deg. With respect to DR3, the depth in the ultra-deep stripes has increased somewhat in all five bands (0.1-0.2 mag), while the depth in the deep stripes in Ks has increased by 0.9 mag, making the depth in the Ks stack much more uniform across the full 1.5 deg x 1.2 deg UltraVISTA field. The seeing in the five stacks is in the range 0.74-0.78 arcsec.
By accessing the UltraVISTA DR4, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including CALET data centers (https://calet.org/), and CASU (Cambridge, http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk).
13 March 2019
First data release from VISIONS - VISTA Star Formation Atlas - Public Survey
VISIONS is a sub-arcsec NIR atlas of the nearby (d < 500 pc) star forming complexes accessible from the southern hemisphere. The atlas will contain tens of thousands of young starts (0.1 to 10 Myr), will be sensitive to objects down to few Jupiter masses and reach spatial resolutions of 100-250 AU.
This first release includes excellent quality J, H and Ks band observations of the dense field of the Ophiuchus star-forming region. Images, confidence maps and source lists, together with band-merged catalogues associated to each individual tile, are accessible via the Science Portal or via the Programmatic Access Service. The sky area observed is 7.5 sq. deg, for which 1134 datasets are provided. Including the associated products the total volume of the release is 350 Gb.
New data from the Kilo-Degree Survey: KiDS Data Release 4
KiDS is one of the ESO Public Surveys carried out with OmegaCAM at the VST. Once complete, it will have observed 1350 square degrees in four filters (u, g, r, i). Born to be a weak lensing shear tomography survey, it will also map the large-scale matter distribution in the universe and constrain the equation of state of Dark Energy. Its secondary science cases include galaxy evolution to Milky Way structure and from the detection of white dwarfs to high-redshift quasars.
This data release covers 1107 square-degrees and more than doubles the sky area covered by the previous three releases combined. For the first time, it includes photometry from the partner VIKING ESO public imaging survey on VISTA. For each of the 1006 square-degree survey tiles the data release includes calibrated stacked images in u,g,r and i filters, their corresponding weights and masks, and single-band source lists extracted from the stacks. Furthermore, the multi-band ugriZYJHKs photometric catalogue covers 1006 square degree survey tiles, with PSF-homogenised and aperture-matched photometry and photometric redshift estimates.
Stacked observing-block level 1D spectra are now added to the FLAMES/GIRAFFE stream
All qualifying GIRAFFE Medusa data are now processed into stacked 1D spectra, whenever the observing block that created the raw products contains more than one SCIENCE exposure. Backwards processing of stacks for the historical part is also completed such that more than 360,000 1D spectra products are available as processed in-house products from the Archive Science portal. Single-exposure 1D spectra are also produced and can be found as associated ancillary files or as science products, if originating observing block contains a single exposure only.
The wavelength scale of these spectra products is in the heliocentric reference system. All stacked 1D spectra come with associated single exposure 1D spectra products, error estimates and signal-to-noise ratio per wavelength bin, and sky spectra when available. The 1D spectra tagged "GIRAFFE", can be queried and downloaded using the Archive Science portal.
More details about the data can be found in the associated Phase 3 data release description for the GIRAFFE_MEDUSA data.
12 February 2019
First data release of the VVVX Public Survey
The VVVX -VVV eXtended- is an ESO Public Survey that was approved as part of the second cycle of Public Surveys with VISTA. This project extends the VVV observing parameter space both in area and time. Primarily VVVX includes portions of the Southern galactic plane that were not covered by VVV. Furthermore it will provide additional epochs to the VVV area in order to improve proper motion precision and keep monitoring the long term variable stars.
The data are taken under the ESO programme 198.B-2004 with VIRCAM. This first release contains observations of about 590 sq. deg, typically covered in three filters: H, J and Ks. Data were acquired between July 2016 and August 2017 and corresponds to the 'master data' to be supplemented in the next releases by the Ks time series. All tiles, their confidence maps and extracted source lists, in addition to the corresponding pawprints, were processed with v1.5 of the CASU pipeline. More information in the accompany extensive release documentation.
First release of pipeline-processed APEX data: the Boomerang nebula
The ESO APEX science operations team have now started the processing of public APEX archival data using standard calibrations. The released science data consist of flux maps.
This initial release by the APEX team consists of a flux map from the LABOCA observations of the Boomerang Nebula. These observations were taken under the ESO programme 092.F-9305(A), during the second half of 2013. The planetary nebula shows a unique high speed wind and mass expansion features, resulting into temperatures that are even colder than the CMB radiation. The released flux map at 870 um provides the opportunity to study the dust around the envelope and the grain size distribution of this planetary nebula. The data are combined and calibrated via a standard process using the BoA software for bolometer data reduction.
Additional release of in-house reprocessed VIMOS images as part of the UK in-kind reprocessing project.
All VIMOS imaging science observations from April 2016 until the end of VIMOS operations in March 2018 have now been processed by ESO and are added to the VIMOS imaging data release. The latest release consists of 466 images and extracted source catalogues at the observing block level in Multi-Extension Fits (MEF) files, with a total size of 51.73 GB. The full VIMOS imaging collection of science data products consists of 38,100 frames with a total size of 1.9 Tb.
Science frames are astrometrically and photometrically calibrated. The astrometric solution has been computed using 2MASS catalogue stars in the science fields, while the photometric calibration was done using zeropoints from matched VIMOS standard star images. The image products come with a variance map that was propagated through the complete reduction cycle. In addition, the data release contains confidence maps and associated single band source lists.
These science products are now published via the ESO Science Portal and they can also be downloaded via programmatic access. More details about data processing, the content of the source lists, data quality, astrometric and photometric calibrations are available in the associated Phase 3 data release description.
03 January 2019
First data release from the Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) ESO VISTA Public Survey
Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) is a survey belonging to the second cycle of ESO VISTA Public Surveys. It is aimed at observing 20 clusters of galaxies covering in total ~30 deg2 in the infrared Y, J, and Ks bands. It will mainly explore galaxy evolution over a large, and largely unexplored, diversity of cluster environments. The DR1 release concerns 9 clusters and contains tile images and related source lists from data collected over the period from October 2016 to the end of September 2017. For two clusters, RXCJ1514.9-1523 and RXCJ2129.6+0005 with complete observations during periods P98 and P99, deep stacks in Y, J and Ks filters are also released, as well as merged catalogues containing aperture matched photometry in the filter bands of the deep stacks.
First data release by the Next Generation Transit Survey
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a ground based exoplanet survey designed to detect Neptune and super-Earth sized planets orbiting around bright stars, using the transit method. The NGTS facility consists of 12 fully-robotic 20cm f/2.8 telescopes located on ESO ground in Paranal. Each telescope has a 2.8x2.8 deg2 field of view and is equipped with a custom filter with a bandpass of 520-890nm, which increases sensitivity to late-K and early-M stars.
The first data release from NGTS includes 24 separate fields that have been completed during the first year of observations (April 2016 to April 2017). A catalogue of the observed sources down to 16th magnitude is provided, together with the light curves obtained with aperture photometry in addition to the reduced, astrometrically calibrated, stacked dithered images. In total, more than two hundred thousand sources were followed, collecting almost 32 billion data points at a 12 second cadence. The volume of the entire NGTS DR1 is 1.7 Tb.
Additional pipeline-processed PIONIER data available
The scientific data obtained with PIONIER over period P100 and P101 are now available as reduced data (squared visibility amplitudes and closure phases) via the ESO Science Archive Facility. This comes in addition to the already published reduced products from P96, P97, P98 and P99. The data were processed by Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin; the Jean-Marie Mariotti Center (JMMC) provides the technical support and the computer resources for this reduction. The PIONIER pipeline is maintained and made available by the JMMC.
The PIONIER calibrated visibility data are available via the Science Portal and the Phase 3 generic query form.
More details about the data can be found in the associated Phase 3 data release description for PIONIER data.
10 October 2018
Spectra from the XSHOOTER GRB afterglow legacy sample (XS-GRB) released
This data release provides 1D spectra of 103 individual afterglows that were observed with the XSHOOTER spectrograph within 48 hours of the GRB trigger. The data release includes a few late-time host observations also for completeness. The total collection of spectra represents all GRB afterglows that have been followed up with XSHOOTER before March 31st, 2017. This date marks the end of the XS-GRB legacy follow-up program. Redshifts have been measured for 97% of these sources, covering a redshift range from 0.059 to 7.84, hence this dataset provides a unique resource to study the ISM across cosmic time.
New data release of spectra and catalogue from the VANDELS ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey
VANDELS is a deep Public Spectroscopic Survey of high-redshift galaxies with the VIMOS spectrograph. It is designed to exploit the multi-wavelength imaging and near-IR grism spectroscopy available in the CANDELS UDS and CDFS fields. The goal is to obtain spectra with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio to derive metallicities and velocity offsets for absorption and emission lines independently, allowing a detailed investigation of the physics of galaxies in the early Universe. Within an area of 0.2 deg2, the survey aims at delivering more than 2500 high signal-to-noise (=15-20) spectra of star forming galaxies in the redshift range 2.5 < z< 5.5 and passive galaxies in the redshift range 1.5 < z < 2.5.
This second data release (DR2) is based on the observations carried out from August 2015 until August 2017 under the ESO run numbers 194.A-2003(E-Q). It contains a total of 1362 1D spectra provided together with their associated 2D spectra, of which 1095 are complete in terms of exposure times. With respect to the first release, DR2 provides spectra of 483 additional targets and 478 spectra with increased exposure times. Moreover the release contains an updated catalogue of derived spectroscopic redshifts among other useful source parameters. More information about the release content can be found in the accompanying documentation.
Second data release of the Large Early Galaxy Census (LEGA-C) Public Spectroscopic Survey now available via the ESO Science Archive
The LEGA-C ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey conducted at the VLT with the VIMOS multi-object spectrograph selects its target galaxies from the UltraVISTA catalogue in the 1.6 deg2 area of the COSMOS field and obtains deep, high resolution spectra from which the kinematics and stellar population parameters of the galaxies are extracted.
The LEGA-C DR2 consists of science products from the second year of observations. Due to refinements of the reduction pipeline, the spectra from the first year were reprocessed and also included in DR2. The current release contains 1988 reduced spectra of 1922 unique sources. The high level catalogue is also published through the Archive. The catalogue records provide several physical parameters such as spectroscopic redshift, emission line fluxes, stellar and gas velocities for the target galaxies.
More information can be found in the extensive release description.
Release of pipeline-processed VIMOS images as part of the UK in-kind reprocessing project
This data release contains the science data products from all science observations done using the VIMOS instrument in imaging mode, from the beginning of regular operations (April2003) until August 2015. The remaining data will be added in the next future.
All image products are produced at the observing block level and no attempt was made to stack data between observing blocks. The image products come with a variance map that was propagated through the complete reduction cycle. These science products are now published via the ESO Science Archive Facility.
The science products for this release were processed by the Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit (CASU). The release consists of 37,168 science frames in Multi-Extension Fits (MEF) files with total size of 1.85 TB. Science frames are astrometrically and photometrically calibrated. The astrometric solution has been computed using 2MASS catalogue stars in the science fields, while the photometric calibration was done using zeropoints from matched VIMOS standard star images. In addition, the data release contains confidence maps and associated single band source lists.
The VIMOS images and source lists can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 generic query form that provides access to all Phase 3 data, or via the Phase 3 query form dedicated to imaging data with query parameters suited to harvest imaging data.
More details about the data processing, the content of the source lists, the data quality, and the astrometric and photometric calibrations are available in the associated Phase 3 data release description.
20 March 2018
First data release from the spectroscopic study of low mass binaries carried out by the Eclipsing Reflection Effect Binaries from the OGLE Survey (EREBOS) project with FORS2.
The EREBOS project is carried out under the ESO LP 196.D-0214, PI Veronika Schaffenroth, and studies the interaction of low-mass stellar and sub-stellar companions with low-mass stars. Several post-common envelope eclipsing binaries, with a hot sub-dwarf primary and a cool low mass companion, were selected using the photometric results of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) and observed with FORS2 in long-slit mode.
This data release includes the reduced FORS2 1D spectra of the first observed 9 targets, together with a source catalogue providing positions, magnitudes and orbital periods derived from the OGLE survey. An additional catalogue of all individual observations including epochs and derived orbital phases is also published. The data released come with an extensive related documentation.
The next planned releases of this large programme will provide additional spectra and updated catalogs, including also additional atmospheric parameters and radial velocities.
The area coverage of VHS DR4 amounting to more than 13000 deg2
12 February 2018
New release (DR4.1) of the multi-band aperture-matched catalogue from the ESO Public Survey VHS
The aim of the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) is to carry out a survey in the near-infrared bands of the whole Southern Hemisphere (~20000 deg2) to a depth of J = 20.2 and Ks = 18.1 (5σ point source, Vega mag). The ~5000 deg2 in the South Galactic Cap are covered in the H band also, and reach fainter magnitude limits, i.e. to J = 20.6; H = 19.8; Ks = 18.5 (5σ point source, Vega mag).
The current catalogue released is published via the Catalogue Facility and provides aperture photometry for more than billion photometric detections (1155634198), supported by morphological parameters for each source. The release includes 8917 distinct catalog tiles, for a total volume of about 0.7 TB and a sky area coverage of 13377 deg2. The specific records in the catalogue can be selected via the catalogue link above, and the individual catalogue tiles can be accessed and downloaded of the user's disk via the Phase 3 query form, and further inspected via VO tools.
The publication of the current catalogue via the ESO Science Archive Facility is carried out on the best effort basis by the ESO Archive Science Group and it is based on available information, as provided by the PI of the VHS survey.
The documentation on the catalogue is limited and the catalogue itself has few issues that could not be fixed:
there is no support documentation, e.g. release description, to either catalogue, image products or source lists;
the values of the header keywords MJD-END in the catalogue tiles are incorrect, as they do not include the exposure time of the last co-added exposure;
the Unified Content Descriptors (UCDs) of the catalogue columns are incomplete;
the physical units of the catalogue columns are missing in most cases.
The catalogue release DR4.1 supersedes all previous VHS catalogues but for ten catalogue tiles that have not been replaced. The area coverage of VHS DR4 is shown above with the goal to provide a global overview of the images and catalogue tiles now available via the ESO Science Archive Facility.
18 December 2017
ESO Follow-up Observations of LIGO-VIRGO Gravitational Wave Source GW 170817: reduced VLT/NACO L’ band imaging data released
The detection of the gravitational wave source GW 170817 by the LIGO-VIRGO observatory network, as well as the gamma-ray burst GRB 170817A, on 17 August 2017 has resulted in one of the largest Target of Opportunity campaigns at ESO (www.eso.org/public/news/eso1733/).
This new data release adds reduced images in the L' filter, centred at 3.80 microns, to the previously released VISIR reduced frames, both carried out under ESO Programme 60.A-9392(A), PI A. Kaufer. Observations have been carried out with the NACO instrument on the VLT on eleven nights between 24 August and 4 September 2017. The current release includes the reduced data, images and noise maps, from the five nights in which the nearby galaxy NGC 4993 was detected plus four additional datasets, obtained by stacking the nights with the goal of increasing the sensitivity and reflecting the possible intrinsic fading of the source with time.
New version of the band merged catalogue from the VPHAS+ Public Survey.
With this additional catalogue release (DR3.2) from the ESO/VST Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+), data from six more months of observations are added to the previously released catalogue. Aperture marched band measurements are derived from all the calibrated images of sufficient quality that have been acquired till 30 September 2015 under ESO Programme 177.D-3023(B,C,D,E, F, G, H). The current catalogue release covers about 1200 square degrees that correspond to over half of the VPHAS+ footprint targeting the Southern Galactic Plane.
The current catalogue provides aperture photometry for 610 million primary detections, supported by parameters providing information on the nature of each source; its total volume is 0.5 TB. The catalogue is available via the Catalog Facility and it is also accompanied by a comprehensive description.
26 October 2017
First data release of the deep 3D cubes plus ancillary maps and 1D spectra from the Large Programme 'Dissecting GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies (GASP)'
The ESO Large Program 'Dissecting GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies' (http://web.oapd.inaf.it/gasp/, PI: B.Poggianti) is now releasing deep MUSE 3D cubes observed in wide field mode and natural seeing plus ancillary products from all the observations taken during the first three semesters of the program (P96, P97 and P98).
The scientific goal of the large programme is to study galaxies at z = 0.04-0.07 in different environments. The first half of the final sample (57/114) is now released. For each target galaxy, the released data products are the reduced and combined MUSE 3D data cube that can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 query form. The 3D data cubes come together with an associated extracted 1D spectrum and associated maps of the emission-lines fluxes for the Halpha and Hbeta emission, the Halpha 2D line-of-sight velocity field, the average star formation rate in four age bins, as well as luminosity-weighted stellar age and stellar mass density maps.
The released data come with a detailed description of the Large Program and a comprehensive data documentation here.
17 October 2017
LIGO-VIRGO Gravitational Wave: Public Release of ESO Follow-up Observations
The detection of the Gravitational Wave by the LIGO-VIRGO observatory network, as well as a gamma-ray source, on 17 August 2017 has resulted in one of the largest Target of Opportunity campaigns at ESO. Observations with several La Silla Paranal Telescopes led to the discovery of the first electromagnetic counterpart of a Gravitational Wave event. In addition, the Observatory carried out mid-infrared imaging with NACO (in the L' band) and VISIR (at 8.9 microns), albeit no source was detected. ESO and several of the observing teams involved have now made their datasets from this event publicly available.
All NACO and VISIR raw images, as well as reduced data from VISIR are publicly available through the ESO Science Archive under programme ID 60.A-9392. The VISIR data release includes coadded images and error maps and is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
29 September 2017
First data release of spectra and catalogue from the VANDELS ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey.
VANDELS is a deep Public Spectroscopic Survey of high-redshift galaxies with the VIMOS spectrograph. It is designed to exploit the multi-wavelength imaging and near-IR grism spectroscopy available in the CANDELS UDS and CDFS fields. The goal is to obtain spectra with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio to derive metallicities and velocity offsets from absorption and emission lines, allowing a detailed investigation of the physics of galaxies in the early Universe. Within an area of 0.2 deg2, the survey will deliver more than 2500 high (15-20) signal-to-noise spectra of star forming galaxies in the redshift range 2.5 < z< 5.5, passive galaxies with H< 22.5 at 1.5 < z < 2.5, and star forming galaxies at 3.0 < z < 7.0 with H < 27, in the AB magnitude system.
The first data release (DR1) is based on the observations carried out from August 2015 until January 2016 (ESO run numbers: 194.A-2003(E-K) ).The data release includes spectra for all galaxies whose observing time was completed. Furthermore, VANDELS DR1 includes the spectra for those galaxies whose observing time reached 50% of the total integration time , i.e. 20 out of 40 total hours and 40 out of 80 total hours.
The number of spectra released is 879, 415 in CDFS and 464 in UDS, and the total data volume is 461 MB.
The VANDELS DR1 includes:
• Fully wavelength- and flux-calibrated 1D spectra for 879 distinct galaxies, along with the associated error spectrum and sky spectrum;
• The associated wavelength-calibrated 2D spectra for 879 distinct galaxies;
• A catalogue with the essential galaxy parameters.
Third data release of images, source lists and aperture matched multi-band catalogue resulting from the VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Survey (VIKING)
The ESO/VISTA Public Survey VIKING is a wide area (final coverage of about 1350 sq. degrees), intermediate depth (5-sigma detection limit J~21 on Vega system), near infrared imaging survey in five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks. The sky coverage has a maximum overlap with the KiDS survey in the optical bands.
This new release of VIKING data, the third, covers all of the highest quality data (images and single-band source lists) taken since the start of the survey in November 2009 and up to March 2015. It contains 736 VISTA images, of which 662 with coverage in all five VIKING filters, 647 with deep co-add in J and an additional 74 with at least two filters. These 736 fields cover an area of 1104 sq. degrees in total.
The aperture matched multi-band catalogue includes a total of about 74 million sources, with magnitudes in the NIR bands of the survey, colours and additional parameters providing information on the nature of each source detection.
Data can be browsed and downloaded from the ESO Science Archive using the Phase 3 query form. More information about this data release are available in the associated release description.
The transient catalogue lists all the PESSTO sources for which a meaningful spectral classification has been obtained up to April 30, 2016 (1035 sources). It includes various parameters that characterize scientifically these transients and their host galaxies.
The multi-epoch photometric catalogue provides the lightcurves for the 32 PESSTO targets whose follow-up lightcurves have been completed.
Note: This release also includes updated versions of 20 archived spectra. These spectra were erroneously associated to a given transient in a host; This is typically the case when different transients occurred in the same host galaxy. The release description of these spectra describes the new associations of the transient spectra in details, see the 'Previous Releases' section of this document.
Telluric standard stars added to the Xshooter data collection
The 1D spectra for telluric standard stars are now added to the Xshooter data collection as stand-alone science-grade spectra. These telluric standard stars are measured frequently during most nights in order to provide a representative reference for telluric absorption lines. They thus provide high-signal-to-noise reference spectra for telluric correction, and science-grade spectra of early-type and solar-type stars at different epochs, from the beginning of Xshooter operations in October 2009 until present. About 30000 new 1D spectra have been added to the Xshooter data collection for a list of 1000 target stars; these numbers will be growing as new 1D spectra are added to the Xshooter data collection.
The products consist of extracted, wavelength-calibrated and flux-calibrated 1-dimensional spectra in tabular format following the established standard for ESO science data products. There are normally spectra for all three XSHOOTER arms (UVB, VIS, NIR). They often come as multiple exposures with exposure times optimized “on the fly”. Often some of these exposures are saturated, and they should be carefully checked for quality. When downloaded, each spectrum comes with ancillary information related to quality control and observational circumstances, and with a preview plot. Data have been pipeline-processed with the best available calibration data. For more details please refer to the associated release description.
Second band merged catalogue release from the VPHAS+ Public Survey.
This catalogue release from the ESO/VST Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+) DR3 is now available via the Catalogue Facility. This band-merged catalogue covers about 1100 square degrees that correspond to 48% of the VPHAS+ footprint covering the Southern Galactic Plane. The catalogue is derived from the calibrated images of sufficient quality that have been acquired up to 30 March 2015 under ESO programme 177.D-3023(B,C,D,E, F, G, H).
The released catalog provides aperture photometry for 529 million primary detections, against a global calibration in the g, r and i bands using APASS as a reference survey. In this catalogue, the primary detections are supported by parameters providing information on the nature of each source detection and the total catalogue volume is about 0.44 terabytes.
The VPHAS+ second catalogue release was generated by the data flow managed by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) in Edinburgh. It is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
08 August 2017
HK band spectroscopy of 25 high-redshift galaxies obtained from the SINFONI/AMAZE Large Programme migrated to Phase 3
AMAZE - ''Assessing the Mass-Abundance redshift[-Z] Evolution'', is an ESO Large Programme aimed at determining the mass-metallicity relation and galaxy dynamics in the redshift range 3<z<5. Observations were performed with SINFONI in seeing limited mode at the VLT under the program ID 178.B-0838(A), (B), (C), PI: R. Maiolino.
The scientific goal of the large programme is to determine the gas metallicities by means of a combination of strong line diagnostics and trace the kinematics of the gas in these high redshift objects.
The full set of extracted 1-dimensional FITS spectra from the AMAZE/SINFONI survey, released in February 2011, have now been migrated to be compliant to the ESO Science Data Product Standard regarding format and header keywords requirements, and ingested in the ESO Science Archive Facility via the Phase 3 infrastructure. This migration enhanced the value of these products by adding useful information in the headers of the FITS files. Each spectrum comes with the associated preview and a summary table providing the basic target information (e.g. coordinates, redshifts, magnitudes). 1-d reduced spectra and ancillary products can be downloaded via the query forms for Science Data Products.
Release of CO(2-1) spectra from the APEX Low-redshift Legacy Survey for MOlecular Gas
The APEX Low-redshift Legacy Survey for MOlecular Gas (ALLSMOG, PI J. Wagg) has observed the CO(2-1) line in a sample of 88 galaxies in the local Universe (0.01<z<0.03). The ALLSMOG observations add information on cold molecular gas content of all sources in this sample which is already well characterized in terms of several derived and measured physical quantities (star formation rates, stellar masses, gas-phase metallicities and atomic HI gas masses).
The ALLSMOG Phase 3 release makes the combined CO(2-1) spectra available so users can derive further spectroscopic parameters, and compare them with other lines in these objects. The spectra either have peak S/N>3 or reach a uniform depth of 0.8 mK (31 mJy) per 50 km/s channel for the non-detections. Further details are given in the data release paper by Cicone et al. and the accompanying release description.
Instructions on how to read or display data in the ESO/SDP tabular data format can be found in the 1D spectrum data format help page.
12 May 2017
New release of Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic Public Survey Data
New reduced data products resulting from the Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey (GES) are now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility. The data release DR3 provides wavelength calibrated 1-dimensional spectra of point-like sources obtained with FLAMES from 31.12.2011 to 19.07.2014 under ESO program ID 188.B-3002, as well as a catalogue containing photometry and derived quantities (e.g. radial velocities, astrophysical parameters, lithium line strength, Halpha emission, abundances) for a fraction of the stars for which spectra are delivered. The total number of submitted data files is 44210, comprising spectra of 25533 unique targets. Included in this sample are 2342 ESO archive spectra, reduced and analysed within GES by the GES pipelines. The DR3 data products correspond to the Gaia ESO internal iDR4 release.
A supplemental data release DR3.1 is also provided. It contains updated versions of the DR3 spectra, reduced with the GES iDR5 pipelines, that supersede the GES iDR4 spectra.
Release of Pipeline-processed MUSE DEEP 3D Data Cubes
This data release provides deep 3D data cubes obtained with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) integral field unit, in the wide field mode, from data acquired starting from June - August 2014, plus the initial two periods of MUSE operations, P94 and P95 (September 2014 until September 2015). These deep cubes are now published via the ESO Science Archive as reduced data.
Each deep datacube is combined from observations across OBs. Where multiple visits of the same target exist, with multiple OBs, the deep datacube combines the input files from these OBs with the goal to reach the maximum possible depth of the observations. It then supersedes the already existing OB-based MUSE datacubes. Therefore, the MUSE and the MUSE-DEEP releases are generally complementary. Some of the deep datacubes are produced from slightly more than 120 input files, and the deepest datacubes represent a total integration time of 30 hrs.
The MUSE-DEEP data collection contains 209 deepcubes and their number will grow with time, with future processing cadence being once per period/yearly. The data have been reduced with the MUSE pipeline, version muse -1. 6.1 and higher. The data format for the MUSE-DEEP cubes and their associated information follows the ESO science data products standard for datacubes and is the same as for the OB datacubes.
As part of the agreement between ESO and IPAG (Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble) to offer the PIONIER interferometric instrument attached to the VLTI in service and visitor mode for periods 96 to 99, IPAG has committed to process the raw data and deliver calibrated visibility data (squared visibility amplitudes and closure phases) to the ESO archive.
The scientific data obtained with PIONIER between 1 October 2015 and 1 January 2017 (ESO observing periods P96, P97, and half of P98) are now available as reduced data via the ESO Science Archive Facility. The data were processed by Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin of IPAG, Grenoble. The Jean-Marie Mariotti Center (JMMC) provides the technical support and the computer ressources for this reduction. The PIONIER pipeline is maintained and made available by the JMMC.
The PIONIER calibrated visibility data can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 generic query form that provides access to all Phase 3 data. More details about the data are available in the associated Phase 3 data release description for PIONIER data.
28 March 2017
New data from the VISTA Magellanic Survey available: VMC Data Release 4
The VISTA Magellanic Survey (VMC) led by principal investigator M.-R. Cioni aims at the determination of the spatially resolved star formation history and the three-dimensional geometry of the Magellanic system. VMC has been designed to reach sources below the oldest main-sequence turn off point of the stellar population with multi-epoch coverage to measure accurate Ks mean magnitudes for pulsating variable stars, e.g. RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids.
The new data release is based on observations of twelve survey fields covering in total about 18 square degrees, which were acquired between November 2009 and August 2013, with at least three visits per field in Y and J filters and twelve in the Ks filter. This release provides 319 reduced and calibrated tile images per individual observation in addition to the corresponding pawprints, deep co-added images, and source lists (separately for each filter). VMC data release 4 complements the previously released imaging data of seven VMC survey fields. It also provides band-merged catalogues for both new and previously released images taking new overlaps into accounts. Catalogues with PSF magnitudes, for each tile, and confirmed variable stars, in some tiles, are also provided.
The data can be browsed and downloaded from the ESO science archive using the Phase 3 query form. The VMC catalogues can be queried individually or in a conjoint fashion using the ESO catalogue facility query interface. More information about this data release are available in the associated release description.
7 March 2017
New release of imaging and multi-band catalogue data from the VST Public Survey ATLAS published
The ESO/VST Public Survey ATLAS is targeting 4500 square degrees of the Southern sky in five filters u,g,r,i,z to depths comparable to those of the SDSS. Its wide wavelength coverage, from the u to the z bands complements the VISTA VHS and VIKING Surveys in the YJHK bands. This survey is relevant for cosmology studies, but it can also be exploited for many other branches of extragalactic and Galactic astronomy studies.
This third release provides stacked reduced images, associated source lists and the band-merged catalogue taken from the beginning of observations in August 2011, through to the end of September 2014, under ESO program id 177.A‐3011. Basic data reduction was carried out at the Cambridge Astronomical Surveys Unit (CASU), while the band merged catalogue was produced by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at Edinburgh. The passbands covered by ATLAS are the SDSS u,g,r,i,z bands reaching approximately the same depth ( r~22) as the SDSS survey in the Northern Hemisphere. The total sky coverage of ATLAS DR3 is ~3700 square degrees. Each ATLAS tile comprises a stacked pawprint composed of two offset exposures.
Imaging and source list products can be browsed and downloaded via the Phase 3 query form, together with the catalogue tile files. Single records of the new catalogue are querable via the ESO catalogue facility query interface. More information are available in the release description.
06 March 2017
Data format specification for PIONIER Interferometric Data available
Phase 3 allows users to return their reduced data for publication via the ESO Science Archive Facility. Now, the Phase 3 data format specifications and the Phase 3 validator have been extended to interferometric (calibrated) data products taken with PIONIER at the VLTI, which include (squared) visibility amplitudes and closure phases, together with information on stations, targets, and wavelengths.
PIONIER users who produce interferometric products as part of their projects are now strongly encouraged to submit their reduced data via Phase 3. Please consult the format specification here: www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase3/p3sdpst-PIONIER.pdf
20 January 2017
Image and source list products released from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV)
The VVV Survey data release DR4 provide the VISTA tile images and source lists in the ZYJHKs filters, processed by the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU), for a total sky coverage of 560 sq.deg.
This data release contains science data products from observations in the period October 1st, 2013 to October 15th 2015, and also additional science data products from observations in September 2010 to September 2013, that had not been included in the previous release.
The VVV DR4 release extends the time series of observations in Ks band over the entire VVV area. It also includes a second epoch of contemporaneous observations in J, H and Ks, and separately in Z, Y, in order to monitor the colour variability of VVV sources. These new products are in addition to the multi-colour data taken at the beginning of the survey.
The VVV DR4 release includes higher cadence observations for 8 tiles within the survey region. These pointings have up to 320 to 330 epochs, covering the entire survey duration from 2010 to 2015. Detailed information on the multi-epoch observations and the science data products are provided in the release description.
This release contains 11452 tile images, which add to the 18011 images published in VVV DR3. Including these image products, the source lists and the associated confidence maps, the total volume is about 8 TB of data, in uncompressed FITS format. Products can be browsed and downloaded via the Phase 3 query form.
3 January 2017
First catalogue data release providing the weak lensing shear measurements obtained from the KiDS DR3 images.
The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) is an ESO public survey carried out at the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) with the OmegaCAM camera. It is designed to be a weak lensing shear tomography survey and its core science drivers are to map the large scale matter distribution in the universe and constrain the equation of state of Dark Energy. The catalogue that is now released is the first weak lensing shear dataset from KiDS with which these questions have been addressed.
It is based on 454 tiles and the total area covered is 449.7 square degrees. It provides information regarding galaxy shapes, photometry and photometric redshift for about 14.7 million sources. See the dedicated press release and the KiDS DR3 documentation related to the images and products on which the weak lensing shear measurements are carried out.
Release of the UltraVISTA/COSMOS2015 catalogue (Laigle et al. 2016)
The COSMOS2015 catalogue contains precise photometric redshifts and stellar masses for more than half a million objects over the 2 deg2 COSMOS field. Including YJHKs DR2 images from the UltraVISTA ultra-deep near-infrared survey, Y-band from Subaru/Hyper-Suprime-Cam and infrared data from SPLASH Spitzer legacy program, this near-infrared selected catalogue is highly optimised for the study of galaxy evolution and environments in the early Universe.
New spectra and images of the PESSTO public survey released in December 2016
A new release of the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects (PESSTO) is available. This release adds 1350 spectra and 383 images to the previously published PESSTO data. All the EFOSC (2851) and SOFI (226) spectra and all the reduced SOFI images (775) obtained during the first four years (April 2012-April 2016) of PESSTO operations, and covering 1168 distinct transient objects, are available via the Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility.
Release of spectra and catalogue from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS)
More than ninety thousands spectra and a redshift catalogue are now released from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS), carried out under the ESO Large Program 182.A-0886, PI L. Guzzo. This is the largest galaxy redshift survey conducted so far at ESO Paranal facilities.
The measured spectra are distributed over two equatorial fields, centered around RA=2 hrs (W1 CFHTLS field) and RA=22 hrs (W4 CFHTLS field), covering an overall area of ~23.5 square degrees. This data release includes 91507 1-D extracted spectra, including 86775 galaxies, and a final redshift catalogue. These data provide an unprecedented sampling in volume, statistics on the number of galaxies and large-scale structure at redshift between 0.5 and 1.2.
Flux calibration issue for XSHOOTER UVB data products
We recently found an issue with the flux calibration of the XSHOOTER data products, for the blue (UVB) arm. The calibration is done with master response curves, which however show significant deviations (above the ±10% limit quoted in the release description) from the proper nightly response curves. This is true since about April 2015. There are also two sudden changes introducing a spectral artefact at λ=365nm, approximately the Balmer discontinuity, around dates 2015-07-30 and 2016-02-10.
For science data products taken before 2015-04, all is fine. There is no issue for the other two arms (VIS and NIR).
We have stopped data processing at the end of October 2016 and are currently analysing the issue. We will accordingly update this information.
07 November 2016
FEROS Pipeline Processed Data Available Through Phase 3
Pipeline processed FEROS echelle data, covering the period November 2003 to the present, are now available as Science Data Products via the Phase 3 main and spectral query forms. The data consist of 1D spectra in the ESO/SDP format and the tar files containing output of the pipeline.
All FEROS data from November 2003 to now have been reprocessed with the latest version of the FEROS Data Reduction System. Future data will be reprocessed using the same pipeline setup and added to the release in regular intervals. Note that most of the new data is protected and for the duration of the proprietary period is only accessible by the PIs and their delegates.
The format and content of the FEROS 1D data is described in more detail in the release notes. Instructions on how to read or display data in the ESO/SDP tabular data format can be found in the 1D spectrum data format help page.
10 October 2016
Third public release of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) now available
KiDS is one of the ESO Public Surveys carried out with OmegaCAM at the VST. Once complete, it will observe 1500 square degrees in four filters (u, g, r, i). Born to be a weak lensing shear tomography survey, it will also map the large-scale matter distribution in the universe and constrain the equation of state of Dark Energy. Its secondary science cases include galaxy evolution to Milky Way structure and from the detection of white dwarfs to high-redshift quasars.
Calibrated co-added images together with their weight maps, masks and single bands source lists are provided for additional 292 survey pointings, with respect to the previous release. The sky area covered is ~320 square degrees, including all the observations executed till October 2015. The multi-band source catalogue, available via the catalogue query interface, lists 49 million sources over the whole area covered, i.e. ~470 squared degrees observed. The current catalog is based on homogenized photometry, provides colour information and photometric redshifts for these sources.
Extensive information on KiDS DR3 is available in the release notes.
29 September 2016
New data of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) Survey in the ELAIS-S1, CDFS, and XMM-LSS fields released
VIDEO is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMMLSS, and ECDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA).
In this release (VIDEO DR4) 1878 new individual instrument footprint images and mosaic images are released, as well as the corresponding single-band source lists. The data also include 33 mosaic deep images using data from previous releases in ZYJHKs. For each VIDEO field, a merged multi-band ZYJHKs catalogue is provided, using the Ks band as the detection image. The release consists of 245 GB of data, all processed through version 1.3 of the VISTA pipeline.
The first data release of the Large Early Galaxy Census (LEGA-C) survey now available via the ESO Science Archive Facility
The LEGA-C ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey is now releasing science products from the first year of observations. LEGA-C started in December 2014 and observations are planned to be completed by mid 2018, with early data releases of the spectra and value-added products. More information on the survey design, sample selection, observing strategy, data reduction, are available at this link: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ApJS..223...29V.
The science 1-D spectra products from the HARPS observations of the ESO programme 096.C-0082, P.I. Guillem Anglada, from January to March 2016, are now available from the ESO Science Archive Facility. The results from the analysis of these spectra are published in the paper entitled “A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri”, by G. Anglada-Escudé et al., inNature.
The HARPS spectra can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 generic query form that provides access to all Phase 3 data, or else the Phase 3 query form dedicated to spectroscopic data with query parameters suited to harvest 1D spectra from ESO programme 096.C-0082.
More information regarding the data format and specification are available in the data release description for HARPS in-house processed data.
18 August 2016
Release of pipeline-processed HAWK-I images as part of the UK in-kind reprocessing project
All images obtained with the High Acuity Wide field K-band Imager, HAWK-I, from the beginning of regular operations (April2008) until October 2015 are now published as reduced data (burst mode excluded) via the ESO science archive facility.
The data for this release was processed by the Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit (CASU) using improved science recipes that run within the ESO CPL environment. The release consists of 3 TBof astrometrically and photometrically calibrated stacked and tiled images, confidence maps, variance maps, and associated single band source lists. The images are stacked at the OB level and are reduced with pipeline version 1.1.
The HAWK-I images tagged "HAWKI" can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 generic query form that provides access to all Phase 3 data. Or the Phase 3 query form dedicated to imaging data with query parameters suited to harvest imaging data.
More details about the data are available in the associated Phase 3 data release description for HAWK-I data.
12 August 2016
New release of images and source lists for the VST Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+)
A new data release of science products resulting from the ESO/VST Public Survey VPHAS+ is now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility.
The latest release of VPHAS+ is adding the science products (images and source lists) from 24 months of observations, in the time interval 01/10/2013 to 10/09/2015. The cumulative area coverage of the VPHAS+ products amounts now to 43% of the entire survey footprint, which was observed to desired image quality. The aim of VPHAS+ DR3 is to maximize the publicly available data, hence supplying the complete filter coverage for as many fields as possible. With this release a total area of about 364 sq.deg are now covered in all survey filters in the Galactic plane and Bulge, and about 200 sq. deg are also available in either the red or the blue filters only.
Reduced images, weight-maps and single-band source lists are provided for a total volume of 1.4TB. The VPHAS+ public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
18 July 2016
Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high-redshift universe with XSHOOTER released
High-quality echelle spectra of a homogeneous sample of 100 QSOs with redshifts between 3.5 and 4.5, covering the spectral range from 315 to 2500 nm, have been obtained in the course of the ESO observing program 'Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high-redshift universe with VLT/XSHOOTER', lead by PI Sebastien Lopez (program code 189.A-0424). This data set represents the largest spectroscopic survey of high-redshift QSOs with simultaneous rest-frame UV/optical coverage to date, thus enabling a wide range of research topics including the intergalactic medium, active galactic nuclei and cosmological studies.
The data, which were reduced and calibrated by the survey team and subsequently returned to the ESO science archive, are now publicly available via the Phase 3 query form. The spectra are corrected for telluric absorption and the QSO continuum fit is provided. For each target there is one spectrum per arm (UV, VIS and NIR) plus the joint spectrum. This release also includes a redshift catalogue and a comprehensive release description.
22 June 2016
Release of pipeline-processed MUSE 3D data cubes by the ESO Science Archive Facility
All spectra obtained with the Integral Field Unit, Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, MUSE, in the wide field mode, from November 2014 till May 2015 are now published via the ESO archive as reduced data. The MUSE 3D science data cubes1 have their instrumental signature removed, and are astrometrically calibrated, sky- subtracted, wavelength and flux calibrated, using the MUSE pipeline, version muse-1.4 and higher. The data format is a three dimensional FITS image, with two spatial and one spectral axis in the first extension; see the ESO science data products standard (in particular the addendum dedicated to cubes) for a description of the data format and metadata information. Their wavelength scale is in the heliocentric reference system. All 3D data cubes come with error estimates (in the second extension) and a limiting magnitude estimated as 5σ limiting AB magnitude, in terms of the total flux of an unresolved source (i.e. point source). There are a number of files associated at download time to each 3D data cube, the broad – band image, also known as “ white – light ” image, plus graphical (preview) files and the complete pipeline log. The MUSE data collection will grow with time, with new reduced 3D data cubes being added as soon as they are processed. MUSE 3D cubes spectra acquired before November 2014 will also soon be added to the collection.
(1) The data cubes are normally stacked at the OB level, unless there is no overlap between the individual exposures. Shallow data cubes from the SKY observations are also processed.
6 June 2016
Ultra-Deep Ks-band imaging data of Hubble Frontier Fields released
This release provides reduced Ks-band mosaics of the Hubble Frontier Fields obtained with the High Acuity Wide field K-band Imager (HAWK-I) at the ESO VLT 8.2-meter Unit Telescope. The first two fields, Abell 2744 and MACS-0416, were observed with HAWK-I on UT4 in P92 and the second two fields, Abell S1063 and Abell 370, were observed in P95 (PI: Gabriel Brammer).
The quality of the final mosaics are quite uniform between all of the surveys fields, reaching point source limiting magnitudes of Ks~26.0 (AB, 5 sigma) with superb image quality, FWHM~0.4 arcsec for point sources. This data release also includes two northern Frontier Fields clusters, MACS-0717 and MACS-1149, which were observed with the Keck/MOSFIRE instrument. The total sky area covered in the Ks-band is 490 square arcminutes.
New release of UltraVISTA Public Survey data via the ESO Science Archive Facility
UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. This third UltraVISTA data release comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters together with a five-band merged catalogue. The principal difference with respect to the DR2 release is a substantial increase in exposure time in all five bands (by a factor of 1.7-4.6) in the four "ultra-deep stripes" regions, corresponding to an increase in depth of 0.4 to 0.8 magnitudes.
The release is based on the observations carried out from December 2009 to May 2014, corresponding to 40250 individual images. The total exposure time contributing to this release is 898 hours, and the total survey area is 1.8 sq.deg. In Ks, the field is covered to a 5 sigma limiting AB magnitude of 24.9 (ultra-deep part) and 23.8 (deep part). Median seeing on all bands is around 0.8’’.
By accessing the UltraVISTA DR3, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the PIs of the VISTA public survey projects and their collaborators, including the data centers at TERAPIX (Paris, http://terapix.iap.fr/), and CASU (Cambridge, http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk).
20 January 2016
Emission maps and catalogues from the ATLASGAL APEX survey published via Phase 3
The APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) is an imaging survey covering 420 sq. deg of the inner Galactic plane at a wavelength of 870um. The observations were carried out between 2007 and 2010, using the LABOCA bolometer array at the APEX telescope. The current release consists of emission maps covering the full area surveyed, split in 3x3 deg tiles. The noise level reached is typically 60 mJy/beam, with an angular resolution of 19''. An other set of images, in which the LABOCA data have been combined with observations from the Planck satellite, in order to recover the most spatially extended emission, is also available. In addition to the source catalogues associated to each image, a compact source catalogue extracted in a different way is provided and searchable via the ESO Catalogue Facility.
More information regarding this release are given in the accompanying documentation.
20 January 2016
Final data release of the zCOSMOS-bright redshift survey (Published on 04.11.2015)
zCOSMOS (PI Simon Lilly, ESO Large Programme 175.A-0839) is a large redshift survey undertaken in the COSMOS field using the VIMOS spectrograph. About 600 hours were awarded to this large programme, which was executed between 2005 and 2010.
The survey was split into two parts: the first, zCOSMOS-bright, which is the subject of this release, aims to produce a redshift survey of about 20000 I-band selected galaxies at redshift z<1.2. It covers approximately 1.7 deg^2 of the COSMOS field and has a transverse dimension at z~1 of 75 Mpc. The second part, zCOSMOS-deep, observed a smaller number of galaxies at higher redshift in the range 1.5<z<3.0.
The current new release completes the zCOSMOS-bright survey. In details, it includes 20689 wavelength calibrated 1-d spectra and associated 5"x5" image cut-outs for each target (FITS and JPEG format) extracted from HST/ACS images in the F814W filter, available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface. It also includes a spectroscopic catalogue that contains the determined redshifts and confidence classes. It is supported by a comprehensive description.
17 November 2015
First release of multi-band source catalogue data resulting from the VST Public Survey ATLAS published
The ESO/VST Public Survey ATLAS is targeting 4500 square degrees of the Southern sky in five filters u,g,r,i,z to depths comparable to those of the SDSS. This survey is also complemented by near-infrared data from the VISTA Hemisphere and VIKING surveys.
The catalogue was extracted from the reduced images which have been released in September 2015 and covers the time from the start of observations by VST in August 2011 through to end September 2013. The sky coverage is ~2000-3000 sq. degrees of sky depending on the band. The multi-band source catalogue contains 87 million entries. The catalogue was produced by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at Edinburgh.
New release of stacked reduced images and source lists for the VST Public Survey ATLAS
New data products resulting from the ESO/VST Public Survey ATLAS are now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility.
This second data release of ATLAS covers all the data collected from the start of observations in August 2011, through to end September 2013. The total sky coverage is ~2000-3000 deg2 of sky depending on the band (SDSS u,g,r,i,z), out of the target of ~4000 deg2 at high Galactic latitudes.
Stacked reduced images, weightmaps, and single-band source lists are provided for a total volume of 5 TB. The ATLAS public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
21 August 2015
New Data Release of VVV Photometric Catalogues via the ESO Science Archive Facility
VVV belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV) is a wide area (562 sq.degrees), near-infrared, multi-epoch imaging survey of the Milky Way bulge and disk. The initial survey in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks is followed by extensive multi-epoch observations in the Ks band.
The observations carried out up to 30 September 2011 with all the approved data from CASU v1.3 pipeline reduction are now complemented by three high-level photometric catalogues which therefore, supersede the previously released catalogues.
The five-band photometric catalogue records object coordinates, fluxes, color indices as well as associated quality information. In total, the catalogues contain 418,562,470 sources. All duplicates arising from the overlaps between adjacent tiles have been removed, leaving only primary detections.
Multi-epoch Ks band photometry of the sources is provided in a separate catalogue consisting of 2,561,652,334 flux measurements from 379,558,809 sources.
Sources classified as variable are recorded in a third catalogue, which contains mean magnitude, photometric amplitudes and probability of variability. In total, the catalogues of variable stars contain 13,266,759 sources.
The data are fully searchable and accessible (the entire data set or user-defined subsets) from ESO's catalogue facility query interface. Please use your personal ESO user portal credentials for login.
06 August 2015
New Release of PESSTO Spectroscopic Public Survey Data
This release number 3 includes the EFOSC2 and SOFI spectra (1728 spectra in total) and the reduced SOFI images (392 images) obtained during the first two years (April 2012-April 2014) of PESSTO operations, for a total of 681 distinct transient objects. Also included in this release is the PESSTO Transient Catalogue, a catalogue of all PESSTO sources for which a meaningful spectral classification has been obtained so far (556 sources).
Furthermore, for the first time PESSTO photometric light curves are made available; this initial release of the PESSTO multi-epoch photometric catalogue provides light curves for 18 objects.
First release of the band merged catalogue for the VST Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane (VPHAS+)
The first band- and field-merged science catalogue created from the imaging data obtained by the VST Photometric Ha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+) has been released and it is available from the for download via the ESO Catalogue Facility. The catalogue is derived from the calibrated images that have been released as part of the VPHASplus/DR2 collection. It covers the first 21 months of data-taking (28/12/2011 through 30/09/2013), in which 24% of the survey footprint (629 sqaure degree) has been observed to sufficient quality. These observations were taken under ESO programme 177.D-3023(B,C,D,E).
The VPHAS+ public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
21 July 2015
New Release of Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic Public Survey Data
The present data release includes wavelength calibrated 1-dimensional spectra of point-like sources obtained with FLAMES from 31.12.2011 to 31.12.2013 under ESO program ID 188.B-3002, as well as a catalogue containing photometry and derived quantities (radial velocities, astrophysical parameters, lithium line strength, Hα emission) for a fraction of the stars for which spectra are delivered.
The total number of submitted data files is 27359 comprising spectra of 14947 unique targets. The Gaia-ESO public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description. Instructions on how to read or display data in the ESO/SDP tabular data format can be found in the 1D spectrum data format help page.
18 May 2015
New user guide describing the reduced data products accessible via the ESO Science Archive Facility published
The Archive Science group has now published a user guide with the description of the reduced data product types that can be browsed and downloaded from the dedicated Phase 3 query forms of the ESO SAF. The user guide contains an overview of the data types, a description of their reduction/calibration levels and instructions on how to browse and access these products.
12 May 2015
Release of pipeline-processed Flames/Giraffe one-dimensional spectra by the ESO Science Archive Facility
All spectra obtained with the spectrograph FLAMES/GIRAFFE in the MEDUSA mode from June 2005 till December 2014 are now published via the ESO archive as reduced data. The extracted, wavelength calibrated, one-dimensional spectra are in tabular FITS format, see the ESO science data products standard for a description of the data format and metadata information. Their wavelength scale is in the heliocentric reference system. All 1D-spectra come with error estimates and signal-to-noise ratio per wavelength bin. There are a number of files associated at download time to each spectrum, including sky spectra when available. The GIRAFFE_MEDUSA data collection will grow with time, with new reduced spectra being added with monthly cadence. FLAMES GIRAFFE spectra acquired before June 2005 will also soon be added to the collection. The 1D spectra tagged "GIRAFFE_MEDUSA", can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 generic query form that provides access to all Phase 3 data or the Phase 3 query form dedicated to spectral data with query parameters suited to harvest spectral data.
This second data release of VPHAS+ covers all the data collected during the first 21 months (from Dec. 2012 to Sept. 2013). The total combined area coverage amounts to 24% of the survey footprint, which was observed to desired image quality. The observations in this time span favoured the Galactic equator and some well-known open clusters of interest to the Gaia-ESO Survey. Reduced images weightmaps and single-band source lists are provided for a total volume of 1.7TB.
The VPHAS+ public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
24 April 2015
Data format specification for APEX sub-millimetre sky maps available and LESS survey data added to the Phase 3 data releases
Phase 3 allows users to return their reduced data for publication via the ESO Science Archive Facility. Now, the Phase 3 data format specifications and the Phase 3 validator have been extended to astrometrically registered and flux calibrated sky maps in the sub-millimetre domain, in particular applicable to observations using the bolometer arrays LABOCA and ARTEMIS at the APEX 12-metre telescope, in addition to images and spectra in the optical to near-infrared regime covered so far.
APEX users who produce sky maps as part of their projects are now strongly encouraged to submit their reduced data via Phase 3. Please consult the format specification for APEX sub-millimetre sky maps here: www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase3/p3sdpstd-APEX-220415.pdf
As an example, interested users can now access and download the Phase 3 compliant products from the LABOCA Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS) Submillimetre Survey (LESS; P.I. I. Smail) which is a public legacy survey of the ECDFS at 870 μm using the LABOCA camera on the APEX telescope. More information on this data release is availbale here: www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase3/data_releases/less_b1.pdf
15 April 2015
Phase 3 Release Validator update version 2.3.0
The Phase 3 Release Validator is a java-based tool to be run locally on your system to validate the data before uploading them to ESO. The updated version 2.3.0 of the Phase 3 Release Validator, which is now available for download, is primarily a bug fix release and the verification of provenance information has been improved.
31 March 2015
IRAF Support for ESO Tabular FITS Format 1D Spectra
ESO one-dimensional (1D) spectra in tabular FITS format can now be displayed and processed with IRAF using the external package SPTABLE, thanks to a close collaboration between ESO and the IRAF developers. The popular IRAF ONEDSPEC package, including SPLOT, and the IRAF RV package are now able to process the 1D spectra from the spectroscopic ESO Public Surveys (PESSTO and Gaia-ESO), Large Programmes (ESSENCE, GOODS FORS2+VIMOS, and zCOSMOS) and internal data products (UVES ECHELLE, XSHOOTER ECHELLE, HARPS, soon GIRAFFE, etc.).
The IRAF external package SPTABLE can be easily installed following the IRAF-provided instructions. More information on using the 1D spectra tabular format can be found on the ESO spectroscopic data products help page.
26 March 2015
New data of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) Survey in the ELAIS-S1 field released
VIDEO is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMMLSS, and ECDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA).
In this release (VIDEO-ES1 DR2) a total of 401 individual single-OB tile images and the associated single-band source lists are released. Those have been reprocessed using version 1.3 of the VISTA reduction pipeline. The data also include deep stacks in Z,Y,J,H, and Ks bands. To the 5σ limit, the Ks-band selected catalogue contains 365,233 sources with Ks< 23.5 (AB) over ~3 square degrees (two tiles).
New imaging data for the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey released
The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV) is a wide area, near-infrared, multi-epoch imaging survey of the Milky Way bulge and disk. The initial survey in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks for a total sky coverage of 540 sq deg, is followed by extensive multi-epoch observations in the Ks band.
This new Phase3 release contains observation up to 30 September 2013 with all the approved data from CASU v1.3 pipeline reduction, and it includes images and single-band source catalogues. It replaces the previous releases that had been processed with previous versions of the pipeline and adds a large amount of new data mainly increasing the number of epochs for the Ks band.
Images and source lists can be queried and downloaded from the ESO Science Archive Facility. For more information please refer to the comprehensive description.
26 February 2015
New data of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) Survey in the CDFS field released
VIDEO is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMMLSS, and ECDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA).
In this release (VIDEO-CDFS DR2) a total of 159 individual single-OB tile images and the associated single-band source lists are released. Those have been reprocessed using version 1.3 of the VISTA reduction pipeline. The data also include ZJHKs deep stacks and a catalogue in the VIDEO-CDFS1 tile, along with J and Ks-band data for CDFS2 and CDFS3. To the 5σ limit, the Ks-band selected catalogue contains 187,869 sources with Ks< 23.5 (AB) over ~1.5 square degrees (one tile).
New data of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) Survey in the XMM-LSS field released
VIDEO is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMMLSS, and ECDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA).
In this release (VIDEO-XMM DR3) a total of 560 individual single-OB tile images and the associated single-band source lists are released. Those have been reprocessed using version 1.3 of the VISTA reduction pipeline. The data also include ZYJHKs deep stacks and catalogues in the VIDEO-XMM3 tile, along with YJHKs for XMM2. In the XMM1 tile the released data cover the Z and Y-band. To the 5σ limit, the Ks-band selected catalogue contains 368,277 sources with Ks< 23.5 (AB) over ~3 square degrees (two tiles).
New catalogue release from the VISTA Magellanic Survey published
The VISTA Magellanic Survey is now publishing the a new catalogue release based on the Point Spread Function (PSF) photometry in three bands Y, J and Ks,
in addition to the aperture matched catalogue, VMC Catalogue DR2, available since 07.01.2015. The PSF photometry catalogue is extracted from the deep tile images completed before October 2012. The VMC-PSF catalogue contains 12.7 million sources and covers an area of 7.5 sq. degrees in the LMC and 3.5 sq. degrees in the SMC. The extensive release description is available here.
06 February 2015
New releases of images and catalogues in the optical and near-infrared bands resulting from the VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Survey (VIKING) and Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS)
The VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Survey (VIKING) - one of the public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) - is a wide area (final coverage: 1500 sq. degrees), intermediate depth, near infrared imaging survey at high galatic latitudes, in five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks. Science goals include high-redshift quasars, extreme brown dwarfs, as well as multiwavelength coverage and identifications for a range of other imaging surveys, notably VST-KiDS and Herschel-ATLAS.
This second data release of VIKING data covers all of the highest quality data (images, weightmaps, single-band source lists) taken since the start of the survey in November 2009 up to September 2013. The current products are derived from an improved processing pipeline. This release contains 477 tiles and covers an area of 690 sq. degrees. The associated multi-band catalogue includes a total of 46 million sources.
The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) - one of public surveys being conducted with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) - will image 1500 sq. degrees in four filters (u, g, r, i). It is designed to be a weak lensing shear tomography survey, but also to map the large-scale matter distribution in the universe and constrain the equation of state of Dark Energy. Secondary science cases include galaxy evolution to Milky Way structure and from the detection of white dwarfs to high-redshift quasars.
This second data release consists of coadded images, weight maps, masks and single-band source lists for 98 tiles that were completed between October 2012 and September 2013. The total combined area coverage of the KiDS releases is 148 sq. degrees. In addition to the image products, the release contains the associated multi-band source catalogue of 17 million sources.
Because the areas covered by KiDS and VIKING releases does overlap, the ESO Science Archive Facility offers source photometry in nine bands, from the near-UV to the near-infrared, for 17 million sources. The new catalogue data are accessible from ESO’s catalogue facility query interface, and each one is accompanied by a comprehensive release description.
09 January 2015
Second release of photometric catalogue data resulting from the VISTA Magellanic Survey published
The VISTA Magellanic Survey (VMC) - one of the six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy - aims at the determination of the spatially resolved star formation history and the three-dimensional geometry of the Magellanic system. The sensitivity is designed to reach sources below the oldest main-sequence turn off point of the stellar population and the multi-epochs to measure accurate Ks mean magnitudes for pulsating variable stars, e.g. RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids.
This second data release refers to five new images for VMC tiles (tiles LMC 5_5, 6_4, 8_3, and tiles SMC 3_3, 3_5) and the two re-processed tiles LMC 6_6 and 8_8 (covering 7.5 deg2 in the LMC and 3 deg2 in SMC). It consists of the band-merged YJKs photometric catalogue based on the deep co-added survey images of at least three epochs in Y and J filters and twelve epochs in Ks filter, the multi-epoch photometry in each of the three bands and the catalogue of known Cepheids including also periods and modes of pulsation from optical-band data. In addition, a new catalogue of eclipsing binaries in the LMC tiles contains Ks amplitudes together with periods from optical catalogues (OGLE-III, EROS-2) for each star. The catalogues were extracted from the reduced images which have been released under VMC Data Release 3 in October 2014.
The new catalogue data are conjointly accessible from ESO’s catalogue facility query interface, each one accompanied by a comprehensive release description.
15 December 2014
The ESO-GOODS project is now entirely served via the Phase 3 infrastructure
The GOODS advanced data products are now available via the query forms for Science Data Products of the ESO Archive.
The ESO-GOODS project consists of a number of observing campaigns in the CDFS field (in particular in the GOODS-South central region), primarily with the VLT, designed to complement the capabilities of HST prior to SM4. The VLT campaign was conducted under the programme "The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey: ESO Public Observations of the SIRTF Legacy/HST Treasury/Chandra Deep Field South", with PI Catherine Cesarsky, over the periods P68-P77. This programme includes:
deep near IR coverage of the GOODS region in the JHK bands with ISAAC
very deep U-band imaging of the entire CDFS area with VIMOS
The data were migrated to be compliant to the ESO standard regarding format and header keywords requirements, and ingested in the ESO Science Archive Facility via the Phase 3 infrastructure.
This migration enhanced the value of these products by adding useful information in the headers of the files. Furthermore the three associated catalogues (two spectroscopic redshift catalogues and one color catalogue) have also become accessible via the Catalog facility query interface.
21 October 2014
HARPS Pipeline Processed Data Available through Phase 3
The pipeline processed HARPS echelle data are now available as Science Data Products via the Phase 3 main and spectral query forms. The data consist of 1D spectra in the ESO/SDP standard format and tar files containing unaltered output of the HARPS pipeline (DRS v. 3.5). Please note that only the presentation of the data has changed; the scientific content remains the same.
The release covers the entire lifetime of HARPS (October 2003-present). Newly acquired and processed data are included as soon as they become available. Note, however, that most of the new data is protected and for the duration of the proprietary period is only accessible by the PIs and their delegates.
HARPS polarimetry data are currently not part of this release and have to be obtained from the dedicated query form, as previously. It is anticipated that polarimetry data will be available through Phase 3 in the foreseeable future.
The format and content of the HARPS 1D data is described in more detail in the release notes. Instructions on how to read or display data in the ESO/SDP tabular data format can be found in the 1D spectrum data format help page.
07 October 2014
New imaging data from the Vista Magellanic Clouds Survey released
New data products resulting from the VISTA Survey of the Magellanic system (VMC) are now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface. The current release is based on the observations of five new VMC survey tiles (three in the LMC and two in the SMC), as well as on improved reduction of two tiles released earlier on.
Observations are taken in three filters: Y, J and Ks for a total sky coverage of ~7.5 deg2 in the LMC and ~3 deg2 in the SMC.
179 reduced and calibrated tile images belonging to individual observations are provided together to the corresponding pawprints and deep co-added images. Weight maps and associated single band source lists are also provided.
Ultra-deep Ks-band imaging data of the UDS and GOODS-South fields released
The HAWK-I Ultra Deep Survey and GOODS Survey is a new ultra-deep near-IR imaging survey executed with Hawk-I at the VLT lead by A. Fontana as principal investigator. It was designed to cover the two CANDELS (http://candels.ucolick.org) extragalactic fields accessible from Paranal that do not have suitably-deep K-band images: a sub area of UDS and GOODS-South. It delivers the deepest, highest quality images ever collected in the K-band. Deep Y-band images in the UDS field have also been acquired. The UDS field is covered to a limit of Ks=27.3 (at 1 sigma) and the GOODS-South data reach slightly deeper/shallower limits (Ks=27.8).
New imaging data of the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO) released
PESSTO (Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects) is a public spectroscopic survey that targets supernovae and optical transients brighter than 20.5m with the goal of classifying supernovae as close as possible to their explosion phase. Release version 1 contained more than 900 flux calibrated spectra for 298 distinct objects observed during the first year of the survey. Such spectra are now complemented with 234 reduced and calibrated near-infrared SOFI images for 22 transient objects. Images and spectra can be queried and downloaded from the ESO Science Archive Facility.
The PESSTO Data Release 2 is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
23/24 August 2014
Network maintenance affecting the ESO Science Archive Facility
Due to maintenance reasons, there may be a disruption of archive services on the weekend 23/24 August. Phase 3 file uploads could be affected. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
15 July 2014
First Data Release of VVV Photometric Catalogues via the ESO Science Archive Facility
VVV belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV) is a wide area (562 sq.degrees), near-infrared, multi-epoch imaging survey of the Milky Way bulge and disk. The initial survey in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks is followed by extensive multi-epoch observations in the Ks band.
The first VVV data release, which is based on observations carried out until 1 October 2010, actually covers 404 square degrees of the Galactic disk and the bulge region and consists of 208 million sources (including duplicates). The previously announced release of astrometrically and photometrically calibrated mosaiced and co-added images, weight maps and associated single band source lists (DR1) is now complemented by three high-level photometric catalogues. The five-band photometric catalogue records object coordinates, fluxes, color indices as well as associated quality information, in total 95 parameters per object with a total data volume exceeding 81 GB. Multi-epoch Ks band photometry of these sources is provided in a separate catalogue consisting of more than 600 million individual measurements with a data volume over 36 GB. More than 6.7 million sources classified as variable are recorded in a third catalogue, which contains mean magnitude, photometric amplitudes and probability of variability with a data volume of 320 MB.
The data are fully searchable and accessible – the entire data set or user-defined subsets – from ESO’s catalogue facility query interface. Please use your personal ESO user portal credentials for login.
By accessing the VVV public catalogue releases, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the VVV public survey team, led by D. Minniti (P.I.), and their collaborators.
11 July 2014
GOODS/FORS2 Advanced Data Products migrated to the Phase 3 infrastructure
The GOODS/FORS2 advanced data products are now available via the query forms for Science Data Products of the ESO Archive.
The data were migrated to be compliant to the ESO standard regarding format and header keywords requirements, and ingested in the ESO Science Archive Facility via the Phase 3 infrastructure.
This migration enhanced the value of these products by adding useful information in the headers of the files. Furthermore the associated catalogue has also become accessible via the Catalog facility query interface.
More details about the GOODS/FORS2 release can be found in the associated Phase 3 release description.
27 May 2014
Phase 3 Release Validator update version 2.1.2
The Phase 3 Release Validator is a java-based tool to be run locally on your system to validate the data before uploading them to ESO. The updated version 2.1.2 of the Phase 3 Release Validator, which is now available for download, offers a considerable improved performance in case of large updating releases.
19 May 2014
Release of XSHOOTER science data products
The ESO archive now provides access to reduced scientific data obtained with the XSHOOTER spectrograph mounted on the VLT.
33000 spectra of all kinds of sources obtained in "ECHELLE,SLIT mode" from the begin of operations in October 2009 until the end of 2013 are now published. The data consist of extracted, wavelength-calibrated and flux-calibrated 1-dimensional spectra in tabular format following the established standard for ESO science data products. There is normally one spectrum for each of the three XSHOOTER arms (UVB, VIS, NIR). When downloaded, each spectrum comes with ancillary information related to quality control and observational circumstances, and with a preview plot.
The XSHOOTER data collection will grow with time and includes the current stream of XSHOOTER data as they are acquired at the observatory, with the reduced products becoming available in monthly release cycles as soon as they are processed. The data products, being tagged "XSHOOTER_ECHELLE", can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 generic query form that provides access to all Phase 3 data or the Phase 3 query form dedicated to spectral data with fields specific to harvest spectral data.
ESSENCE/FORS1 Advanced Data Products migrated to the Phase 3 infrastructure
The ESSENCE/FORS1 advanced data products are now available via the query forms for Science Data Products of the ESO Archive. The ESSENCE data were migrated to be compliant to the ESO standard regarding format and header keywords requirements, and ingested in the ESO Science Archive Facility via the Phase 3 infrastructure. This migration enhanced the value of these products by adding useful information in the headers of the FITS files.
Part of the migration was devoted to recover the processing provenance and the association with the raw data which was successful for almost all of the migrated files. More details about the ESSENCE release can be found in the associated Phase 3 release description.
09 April 2014
New photometric catalogue data resulting from the VISTA Magellanic Survey released
The VISTA Magellanic Survey (VMC) - one of the six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy - aims at the determination of the spatially resolved star formation history and the three-dimensional geometry of the Magellanic system. The sensitivity is designed to reach sources below the oldest main-sequence turn off point of the stellar population and the multi-epochs to measure accurate Ks mean magnitudes for pulsating variable stars, e.g. RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids.
This data release, covering the survey tiles LMC 6_6 (including the 30 Doradus star forming region) and LMC 8_8 (including the South Ecliptic Pole region), ca. 3.5 deg2 in total, consists of the band-merged YJKs photometric catalogue based on the deep co-added survey images of at least three epochs in Y and J filters and twelve epochs in Ks filter, the multi-epoch photometry in each of the three bands and the catalogue of known Cepheids including also periods and modes of pulsation from optical-band data. The catalogues were extracted from the reduced images which have been released under VMC Data Release 2 in June 2013.
First data of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations Survey in the VIDEO-ES1 field released
VIDEO is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMMLSS, and CDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). This release (VIDEO-ES1 DR1) contains single-OB images in Z,H and Ks bands in the VIDEO-ES1 field along with the associated source lists taken between 06/10/2010 and 15/11/2011. Coverage of the full 3.0 square degrees of the ES1 field will be provided in future releases.
First data of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations Survey in the VIDEO-CDFS field released
VIDEO is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMMLSS, and CDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). This release (VIDEO-CDFS DR1) contains single-OB images in Z,H and Ks bands in the VIDEO-CDFS1 field along with the associated source lists taken between 06/12/2011 and 29/12/2011. The whole coverage over the full 4.5 square degrees of the CDFS field will be provided in future releases.
zCOSMOS Advanced Data Products migrated to the Phase 3 infrastructure
The zCOSMOS-bright advanced data products are now available via the query forms for Science Data Products of the ESO Archive. The zCOSMOS data were migrated to be compliant to the ESO standard regarding format and header keywords requirements, and ingested in the ESO Science Archive Facility via the Phase 3 infrastructure.
This migration enhanced the value of these products by adding useful information in the headers of the files. Furthermore the associated zCOSMOS-bright catalogue has also become accessible via the Catalog Facility query interface.
Part of the migration was devoted to recover the processing provenance and the association with the raw data which was successful for 97% of the migrated files. More details about the zCOSMOS release can be found in the associated Phase 3 release description.
20 January 2014
First release of PESSTO spectral data products
The Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO) is one of the two on-going ESO public spectroscopic surveys. It aims to deliver detailed, high-quality, time series optical and near infrared spectroscopy of 150 optical transients covering the full range of parameter space that the current synoptic surveys now deliver: luminosity, host metallicity, explosion mechanisms. This will build a comprehensive understanding of the exotic, explosive Universe.
Data products resulting from the first release of PESSTO are now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility. This data release consists of optical (NTT/EFOSC2) and NIR (NTT/SOFI) wavelength-calibrated 1-dimensional spectra of supernovae and optical transients brighter than 20.5mag, observed between April 2012 and April 2013 under ESO program ID 188.D-3003. The total number of data files submitted in this release is 909 1-d spectra and the corresponding 909 2-d spectra (downloadable as ancillary files associated to the 1-d products), of 298 unique targets. The total data volume of this release is 3 GB.
The 1d spectra are published using the tabular format following the established standard for ESO science data products. The PESSTO public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
Instructions on how to read or display data in the ESO/SDP tabular data format can be found in the 1D spectrum data format help page.
08 January 2014
New data of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations Survey in the VIDEO-XMM field released
VIDEO is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMMLSS, and ECDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The first public data release of the VIDEO programme via the ESO Science Archive Facility, the VIDEO-XMM Data Release Number 1, Date: 25.07.2011, contained 97 individual (i.e. single-OB) tile images in the VIDEO-XMM3 field and their associated single-band source lists. This release (VIDEO-XMM DR2) adds 156 single-OB images in the VIDEO-XMM fields 1, 2 and 3. DR2 is the first release that includes deep co-added images of the XMM3 field including the associated single-band source lists and the resulting deep photometric catalogue where the ZYJHKs data have been merged. To the 5σ limit of Ks~23.8, the Ks-selected catalogue contains 198178 sources over ~1.8 deg2.
First Data Release of the VIKING five-band photometric catalogue via the ESO Science Archive Facility
VIKING belongs to the suite of six public surveys being conducted at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Survey (VIKING) is a wide area (eventually ~1500 sq.degrees), intermediate-depth (5-sigma detection limit J~21 on Vega system) near-infrared imaging survey, in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks.
The first VIKING data release, which is based on observations carried out until mid February 2011, covers 226 square degrees in all five VIKING filters and consists of 14.7 million sources (including low-reliability single-band detections). The previously announced release of astrometrically and photometrically calibrated mosaiced and co-added images (each 1.5 square degrees), weight maps and associated single band source lists is now complemented by the VIKING five-band photometric catalogue recording object coordinates, fluxes, color indices, morphologic parameters as well as associated quality information, in total over 160 parameters per object with a total data volume over 9 gigabytes. The data are fully searchable and accessible – the entire data set or user-defined subsets – from ESO’s catalogue facility query interface. Please use your personal ESO user portal credentials for login.
By accessing the first VIKING public catalogue release, the ESO community benefits from joint efforts by ESO, the VIKING public survey team, led by A. Edge (P.I.), and their collaborators.
Release of pipeline-processed UVES data by the ESO Science Archive Facility
The collection of pipeline-processed high-resolution spectral data obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) has been significantly extended, now also including the observations that make use of the image slicers in order to optimize the observing efficiency during sub-optimal seeing conditions. In addition to the UVES data announced on 24 October 2013, over 10,000 individual spectra, which have been acquired in the period between 2003 and 2013, are now available from the ESO Science Archive Facility. The data consist of extracted wavelength- and, whenever possible, flux-calibrated 1-dimensional spectra in tabular format following the established ESO science data products standard.
According to ESO’s data access policy, data products become publicly accessible once the proprietary period (usually one year) has expired; before that date, access to the data products is restricted to the P.I. of the observing programme and her/his collaborators.
18 November 2013
First Release of Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic Public Survey Data
This data release consists of wavelength calibrated 1-dimensional spectra of point-like sources in tabular format following the established standard for ESO science data products, and obtained with FLAMES from 31.12.2011 to 30.06.2012 under ESO program ID 188.B-3002. The total number of data files submitted in this release is 5654 comprising spectra of 3834 unique targets. The total data volume of this data release is 1.3 GB.
The Gaia-ESO public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description. Instructions on how to read or display data in the ESO/SDP tabular data format can be found in the 1D spectrum data format help page.
First Release of VST Public Survey ATLAS Imaging Data
This data release consists of the stacked reduced images and associated source lists taken from the start of observations in August 2011, through to end September 2012 under ESO program ID 177.A-3011. The imaging data comprises the combination of the two individual pawprint images which goes to make an ATLAS stacked pawprint in each field. The passbands covered are the SDSS u,g,r,i,z bands reaching approximately the same depth (r~22) as the SDSS survey in the Northern Hemisphere. The data release comprises a total of 32031 data files occupying ~3TB in its default Rice compression. The total area covered is ~1000 deg2.
The ATLAS public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
24 October 2013
Release of UVES Echelle Science Data Products
The ESO archive now provides access to reduced scientific data obtained with the UVES spectrograph mounted on the VLT via the Phase 3 system. More than 75000 spectra of point-like sources obtained in "ECHELLE mode" from the beginning of 2000 until 2013 are now published. The data consist of extracted wavelength- and, whenever possible, flux-calibrated 1-dimensional spectra in tabular format following the established standard for ESO science data products. The UVES data collection will grow with time and includes the current stream of UVES data as they are acquired at the observatory, with the reduced products becoming available in monthly release cycles as soon as they are processed.
The data products, being tagged "UVES_ECHELLE", can be queried and downloaded using the Phase 3 query form dedicated to spectral data, or from the generic query form that provides access to all Phase 3 data but is lacking the fields specific to spectral data.
Upgrade of the Phase 3 system, release validator version 2.0.0
The Phase 3 system has been upgraded to support the publication of new data products, particularly data to be processed by ESO in the course of data flow operations, so-called internal data products (IDPs). The upgrade includes the following general improvements.
In order to catch problems earlier in the process, the integrity of the processing provenance information provided in the products is verified after data submission to ESO (i.e. when the release has been closed);
The Phase 3 system now fully supports recording the processing provenance of data products within one dedicated FITS binary table extension (cf. ESO SDP Standard, Issue 5, Sect. 2.4.2, for details);
Performance improvements and bugs fixes
Please upgrade to the new version of the Phase 3 release validator (v2.0.0) if you downloaded the Phase 3 release validator before.
20 August 2013
First Data Release of VST Public Survey VPHAS+ Imaging Data
This data release covers the first 9 months of data-taking in which a tenth of the survey footprint was observed to desired quality. These first pointings have favoured the Galactic equator and some well-known open clusters of interest to the Gaia-ESO Survey. Reduced images and unstacked single-band source lists are provided. The total data volume of this data release is 749 GB.
The VPHAS+ public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
15 July 2013
First Data Release from the MATISSE/OCA-ESO Project (AMBRE)
Stellar radial velocities, atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, mean metallicity [M/H]) and enrichment in alpha-elements ([alpha/Fe]) resulting from the automatic analysis of 21551 FEROS spectra from the ESO data archive with the MATISSE algorithm have been released. Go to the ESO Catalogue Facility(*) for data download and further information.
(*) Note: requires authentication through the ESO User Portal.
11 July 2013
First Release of VST Public Survey KiDS Imaging Data
This data release consists of the first 50 “tiles” of KiDS, each observed in all four filters (u,g,r,i), during the first year of regular operations (15 October 2011 to 31 September 2012) and during Early Science Time (13 August to 15 October 2011). A total of 800 files is included in this data release. The release consists of astrometrically and photometrically calibrated mosaiced and coadded images (each 1.0 deg²), weight maps, FLAG mask images and associated single band source lists in the different bands of the survey. The total data volume of this data release is 702 GB.
The KiDS public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
Deep HAWK-I J and Ks imaging of the X-ray luminous galaxy cluster XMMU J2235.3-2557
This data release consists of a mosaic of four pointings in two filters J and Ks, with the center of the X-ray luminous galaxy cluster XMMU J2235.3-2557 imaged in the four extreme corners of the HAWK-I detector mosaic. The deep image covers 13' by 13' on the sky with a pixel scale of 0.1065''. The image quality varies from 0.3'' to 0.7'' depending on filter and location.
The 60.A-9284(H) data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
28 June 2013
Second Release of ESO/VISTA Public Survey Imaging Data
New data products resulting from the ESO/VISTA public surveys are now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility. The current release of data from the VVV, VHS, VIKING, and VMC surveys (6.2 TB) covers mostly the period from October 2010 to September 2011 and consists of astrometrically and photometrically calibrated mosaiced and coadded images (each 1.5 deg²), weight maps and associated single band source lists in the different bands of each survey.
The new data largely complement the first release of VISTA public survey data products from 2011 adding up to 12 TB of (compressed) imaging data. Each public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
14 May 2013
Phase 3 validator is ready to verify data submissions from spectroscopic surveys
The configuration of the Phase 3 validator has been updated and is now ready to be used for the verification of 1D spectra and generic images. No user action is needed to activate the new configuration. The Java code itself (validator.jar) remains unchanged. Next time validator.jar is launched, the updated configuration will be taken into account automatically.
Revised version of the Frequently Asked Questions
A revised version of the Questions and Answers is available, with a more detailed description of the metadata for the characterisation of 1D spectra and support for the "ANCILLARY.2DSPECTRUM" and "ANCILLARY.IMAGE" data formats.
Revised version of the Phase 3 policies
A revised version of the Phase 3 policies has been published, which now include specific information on VST, spectroscopic surveys and catalogue information, in addition to VISTA public survey policies.
14 March 2013
Phase 3 validator supports the "ANCILLARY.MASK" data format.
The configuration of the Phase 3 validator has been updated now including support for the "ANCILLARY.MASK" data format, which allows to describe the data quality of image arrays. Next time validator.jar is launched, the updated configuration will be taken into account automatically.
26 February 2013
Phase 3 validator is ready to verify VST OmegaCAM DR1 data.
The Phase 3 validator has been reconfigured and is now ready to be used for the verification of the VST OmegaCAM DR1 data.
No user action is needed to activate the new configuration. Next time validator.jar is launched, the updated configuration will be taken into account automatically. The Java code itself (validator.jar) remains unchanged.
11 January 2013
Phase 3 data format standard for OmegaCAM data products available.
To support the VST Public Surveys in their Phase 3 preparations the format standard for data products to be submitted via Phase 3 has been expanded and now includes OmegaCAM data products (Issue 5, Date 11/01/2013).
15 October 2012
Phase 3 data format standard for spectroscopic data available.
To support ESO spectroscopic surveys in their Phase 3 preparations the format standard for data products to be submitted via Phase 3 has been expanded and now includes spectroscopic data, i.e. extracted, calibrated, and fully characterized one-dimensional spectra.
The new ESO Science Data Products Standard (Issue 4, Date 15/10/2012) is based on the standard definitions, which were previously published in the External Data Products Standard, Issue 3 (25/05/2012). Note that the data format standard for VISTA public survey products (images and catalogues) remains unchanged, meaning that issue 3 still may be used for the preparation of these data.
As the scope of the new standard was enlarged to science data products in general, the document title has been adjusted accordingly. External data providers are not affected by this modification.
Phase 3 Validator is ready to verify VISTA DR2 data.
DR2 images and source lists require a few modifications with respect to DR1 (see below). To this end the Phase 3 validator has been reconfigured and is now ready to be used for the verification of the VISTA DR2 data.
No user action is needed to activate the new configuration. Next time validator.jar is launched, the updated configuration will be taken into account automatically. The Java code itself (validator.jar) remains unchanged.
Here is a brief summary of changes to the data requirements with respect to DR1:
PROV keys were recommended for image data products (tile, pawprint etc.) submitted in 2011. The upgrade of the Phase 3 infrastructure that took place in May 2012 entails the requirement saying that processing provenance is compulsory metadata for Phase 3 data products delivered thereafter. Now the validator also checks the existence of the PROV keyword for VISTA tiles and pawprints.
RA, DEC keywords are required to point to the actual center of the image. For tiles RA/DEC should be set to the image centre (based on the WCS) instead of the previously tolerated telescope pointing of the first pawprint /offset position. Alternatively, the tile coordinates as defined by SADT can be copied (once converted to decimal degree format).
PRODCATG tokens are upper case, eg. SCIENCE.IMAGE. Although, the previous lower case format is still accepted for DR2, it is recommended to change the software in view to future releases.
Pls. see also: ESO External Data Products Standard (Issue 3, Date 22/05/2012), CHANGE RECORD on p.2. The validation of VISTA DR1 catalogue data products is unaffected by this update.
As of 12 June 2012 any standard FTP client can be used to transfer Phase 3 data including the clients previously suggested like lftp and FileZilla. The requirement to use the SSL/TLS encryption layer for connections to the Phase 3 FTP server at ESO has been dropped. phase3ftp.eso.org now accepts plain FTP connections (port 21) whereas the support for FTP over TLS has been removed.
Normally, the change is fully transparent to the user. If you have previously saved the details of the connection to phase3ftp.eso.org using FileZilla's site manager for instance, you may need to update your setting. In this case encryption needs to be disabled by selecting "Use plain FTP".
25 May 2012
Adding support for catalogue data submission with improved validation of data products
This is a major upgrade of the Phase 3 Infrastructure that entails the following changes:
The Phase 3 release manager prompts the user for the title, i.e. a brief human-readable content description, when a new Phase 3 data collection is being created. Uniqueness of the data collection name is enforced.
10 March 2011
Initial roll-out of the Phase 3 infrastructure
Phase 3 operations started supporting the validation, transfer and publication of the first data products from ESO/VISTA public surveys.
The area coverage of VHS DR4 amounting to more than 13000 deg2