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Half of the ZTF camera time and half of the SEDM time are dedicated to a 2-night cadence public survey of the entire northern sky in g & r bands. As with ZTF-I, alerts will be distributed in real time to the brokers but with the addition of forced photometry in the alert packets. SEDM spectra will be uploaded daily to TNS. See the section to the right to find out more about the public survey release schedule.
The ZTF Science Data System (ZSDS) is housed at IPAC-Caltech. This consists of the data processing pipelines, data archives,
infrastructure for long term curation, and the services for data retrieval and visualization. An overview of the ZSDS is provided in
Masci et al. 2018, The Zwicky Transient Facility: Data Processing, Products, and Archive , PASP, 131, 995.
Pipelines, data products (including alert packets), product retrieval, formats, and usage are described in more detail in:
The ZSDS Explanatory Supplement: Pipelines, Definitions, Data Products & Access.
In the course of ZTF-O4, the ZTF collaboration will run monthly "experiments". These will be targeted 3-night observing sessions that demand observing modes (cadence, filters, field selection, integration times, etc) different from those during routine operations. The goal is to pursue specific scientific questions and explore opportunities for new science. Alerst from the science experiments will be public and available immediates (as usual). Images and photometry data will also become available after two months. Learn more and see our schedule for upcoming science experiments.
Read this section carefully as we have introduced changes to the public data release schedule in ZTF-O4.
ZTF-O4 runs between 30 Sept, 2023 and 30 Sept, 2024.
While the frequency of the public data releases in ZTF and ZTF II was bi-monthly, this frequency now changes to quarterly in ZTF-O4. Public data releases
include data taken during the NSF-supported observing time of the ZTF survey. The ZTF-O4 release process has been reconfigured to
deliver data faster. This means that:
* Images will be released on a 60-day sliding window (from acquisition)
* Light curves will be recalculated every 4 months, and include data from up to two months before the release month
* Alerts and forced-photometry will continue to be available realtime
Proprietary data will be released similarly, except after 550 days (~18 months)
TLDR images will be out faster and light curves on a predicable schedule.
You can find the schedule for all upcoming data releases in the table below. The schedule for past releases is available here.
Data Release | Date (DD-MM-YYYY) | Lightcurve cut-off |
DR 23 | 22-01-2025 | 01-11-2024 |
DR 22 | 18-09-2024 | 01-07-2024 |
Total observation span: March 2018 - Jun 2024
This release adds 4 months of observations to the twenty-first data release, up to 30 June 2024 for the public portion of the survey, and
private survey time prior to 28 February 2023. The products include 58.5 million single-exposure images, 177 thousand co-added images,
accompanying source catalog files containing 888 billion source detections extracted from those images, and 4.92 billion light curves
constructed from the single-exposure extractions.
Guide
Access
Total observation span: March 2018 - Feb 2024
This release adds 4 months of observations to the 20th data release, up to 29 Feb 2024 for the public portion of the
survey, and private survey time prior to 31 Oct 2022.
The products include 56.3 million single-exposure images, 176 thousand co-added images, accompanying source catalog files
containing 860 billion source detections extracted from those images, and 4.89 billion light curves constructed from the
single-exposure extractions.
Guide
Access
Total observation span: March 2018 - Oct 2023
This release adds 4 months of observations to the 19th data release, up to 31 October 2023 for the public portion of the
survey, and private survey time prior to 30 June 2022. The products include 53.5 million single-exposure images, 176 000
co-added images, accompanying source catalog files containing 828 billion source detections extracted from those images,
and 4.75 billion light curves constructed from the single-exposure extractions.
Guide
Access