Archive for Euclid Dr1

Euclid Update – Revised Timeline

Posted in Euclid, mathematics, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2026 by telescoper

In a post last week I hinted that I hoped soon to be able to provide an update on progress with the European Space Agency’s Euclid Mission. People within the Euclid Consortium have known for some time, but it has now been officially announced by ESA, that the timeline for the first full Data Release (DR1; originally scheduled for October 2026) has now been revised.

The plan now is for DR1 to happen in stages, with a first tranche to occur in November 2026 (precise date yet to be announced). The complete data release will take place in mid-2027 (probably in June). The sky area covered by DR1 will be about covering a large sky area of about 1900 deg².

To give a little more background, the data products from the Euclid survey are divided into three levels of data processing function:

  • LE1 – the “raw” data frames, prior to calibration, generated at the Science Operations Centre from the time-ordered data and telemetry received from the spacecraft
  • LE2 – the calibrated and corrected data for the two instruments (VIS and NISP) – images, spectra, catalogues of point sources, etc
  • LE3 – the high-level data products (galaxy catalogues, cosmic shear maps, etc) designed for cosmological analysis

The first release will comprise LE1 and LE2 only. This will be called DR-Foundation. The LE3 data will be added next year to make the full DR1. Since LE3 is required for the cosmological analysis that is the prime motivation for the Euclid mission, it follows that there will be no official cosmology results from Euclid DR1 until mid-2027 at the earliest. Other results based on “Foundation” data may of course emerge before then.

I hope this clarifies the situation.

P.S. Irish physicists and astronomers will be particularly interested to know that the LE1 data includes information about the spacecraft and instrument pointing orientations, which is stored in the form of quaternions…

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Not in Barcelona…

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , on May 25, 2026 by telescoper

So much has happened since that it’s hard to believe that just two years ago I was enjoying a sabbatical in Barcelona. I was delighted when it was announced that this year’s Euclid Consortium Meeting would be held there, but when I saw the dates (25th to 29th May) I was worried that the meeting might clash with examining duties. When the examination timetable was published a couple of months ago, that possibility became a reality and I realized that I couldn’t attend. In fact I have an examination to deal with tomorrow, and will be grading the scripts for the rest of the week ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend.

It’s a shame I can’t make the EC meeting because this will be the last one before the first main release of data, DR1, which is scheduled to take place on October 21st this year. I’ve been following progress in the science working group on galaxy clustering via weekly Zoom conferences, but it would have been nice to see what has been going on in the other groups as well as catching up with colleagues in person as opposed to online.

The second data release, DR2 will not happen until March 2029, by which time I will have retired. In fact there will be at most two Euclid Consortium meetings that I can attend – in 2027 and 2028 – and the second of those may be after my retirement. The final data release, DR3, will happen in October 2031.

It’s worth also mentioning that there will be another Quick Release of data, this one from the Euclid Galactic Bulge Survey, on June 24 this year. There will be quite a lot of press activity around that, but I’m not involved in it.

Here is the complete timeline for reference:

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone involved in the Euclid Consortium Meeting an enjoyable and productive time in Barcelona as well as a fun stay in what is truly an amazing city. I’ll be enjoying the beautiful weather in Maynooth (25°C and sunny) while all the participants are slaving over hot cosmology.

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