Processed Calibration Files for VLT instruments Now Available

Published: 27 Jul 2015
Paranal Observatory control building

The ESO Science Archive Facility has distributed raw calibration files such as bias frames and flat field frames for many years. As an additional service, we now are also distributing certified, processed and co-added calibration frames that can be directly used for science processing, without having to run the entire data reduction chain.

Processed calibrations are certified for quality and typically become available two-three working days after being acquired at the telescope to allow for such a certification. The certification process also applies to the raw calibration files. ESOReflex data reduction workflows can be used to customize the generation of the processed and co-added calibration frames and to apply them to the science files. A detailed step-by-step guide on how to automatically associate the appropriate calibrations, raw or processed, to the science files of interest is available.