New data from the Kilo-Degree Survey: KiDS Data Release 4

Published: 28 Feb 2019

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.

The products are available via the ESO Archive Science Portal or the Programmatic Access service. More details about the release content can be found in the associated Phase 3 data release description. Moreover the catalogue records can be queried programmatically or via the dedicated Catalog Interface.