The Science Archive Facility now provides community access to the first data products from the VST public survey projects. Following a year and a half of successful scientific operations, the VST public surveys have returned nearly 1.5 TB of reduced data products, which can be queried for and downloaded via dedicated query interfaces.
[Archive]: First Release of VST Public Imaging Survey Data
Published: 03 Sep 2013
A summary of the scientific goals and observing strategies of all the Public Surveys is available. Data is available for the following Public Surveys:
- KiDs - The Kilo-Degree Survey
KiDS will survey two areas of extragalactic sky, each 750 square degrees each, in four filters (u',g',r' and i') to 24-25 mag. depending on filter. In parallel, the companion VIKING Public Survey on the VISTA telescope will cover the same area in five near-infrared bands: Z,Y,J,H and K. - VPHAS+The VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane
VPHAS+ will combine Hα and broadband u',g',r' and i' imaging over an area of 1800 square degrees capturing the whole of the southern Galactic Plane within the latitude range |b| < 5 degrees. The survey complements the northern hemisphere Galactic Plane survey IPHAS.
The first release of data from the KiDS and VPHAS+ surveys covers mostly the period from October 2011 to September 2012 and consists of astrometrically and photometrically calibrated mosaiced and co-added images (each 1.0 square degree), weight maps and associated single band source lists in the different bands of each survey. Each public survey data release is accompanied by a comprehensive description.
By accessing the first VST public release, the ESO community benefits from the joint efforts of ESO, the PIs of the VST public survey projects and their collaborators. More details can be found under Phase 3 — News and Changes.