As you have probably noticed, the DSS batch tool was out of service for some time.

This was due to architectural changes in the ESO infrastructure, meant to solve some vulnerability issues discovered during the summer 2012. Now that the security of the ESO infrastructure has been improved, the service has been restablished.

Please be aware that some changes were needed in the software configuration; hence, to make it to work, you have either to install the dss client again (see install instructions), or you can simply apply the patch described here.

To support the VST Public Surveys in their Phase 3 preparation, the format standard for data products to be submitted via Phase 3 has been expanded and now includes OmegaCAM data products. Please refer to: Issue 5, Date 11/01/2013.

The Ultra-VISTA survey, targeting a sub-area of the COSMOS field, represents the deepest of the six near-infrared ESO public imaging surveys, which are currently being executed at ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The first release of the new infrared source catalogue in the COSMOS field is now accessible from the ESO Science Archive Facility through a new powerful user interface for querying and data download.

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.

ESO Science Data Products Standard (Issue 4, Date 15/10/2012)

As part of the ongoing effort of enabling access to historical ESO data, raw frames from the FEROS instrument taken between 2001-09-01 and 2003-10-15 have been recovered from offline media. These data are now available through the standard Archive query form.

The APEX query form now allows PIs and their delegates to download proprietary processed data. These data products are now transferred over the network, allowing PI's to access their data within a few weeks after they have been taken. It is expected that this lag will be reduced to a few days in the foreseeable future.

In addition to historical and public pipeline-processed data, the FEROS/HARPS query form now allows PIs and their delegates to query and download proprietary processed data. Access the query form...

At the end of 2010 the previous operator of the European Hubble Space Telescope Archive, the ST-ECF closed its doors. (see http://www.stecf.org/)

The Phase 3 infrastructure has been upgraded to enable the submission of science catalogue data from VISTA public surveys.

Following the successful publication of the data products from the VISTA public surveys (VVV, VIDEO, VMC, VHS) on 01.12.2011 (see announcement), the first data release from the ULTRAVISTA survey is now added to the list. The release consists of about ~ 87 GB high quality data products including the deep images in YJHKs broad bands and the NB118 image at the position of the COSMOS field, plus the single bands and multi-color catalogs.