Extreme Stellar Signals Project IV

The Extreme Stellar Signals Project (ESSP) is an international research network of scientists working to mitigate stellar signals for improved radial velocity (RV) planet searches. This website describes the fourth round of ESSP work.

Those interested in joining can e-mail lilylingzhao[at]uchicago.edu or fill out this form at any time.

This page discuses the intended purpose of ESSP IV, gives the most up-to-date timeline, and lists any significant changes to be aware of. There is also an optionally anonymous form for feedback/questions.


The intended purpose of ESSP IV is:

To what degree do different techniques succeed in separating out stellar signals and instrumental variation from planetary signals in a realistic observing case ?

Hover over orange, underlined words for more details.


Timeline

The projected timeline throughout 2025 and into 2026 is as follows:

Jan 30Meeting: (11 ET; 17 CET) introduce ESSP IV and intended scope ()
May 5Data Release: initial data products
May 16
Submission: (1) group information
(2) table of method basics
(3) brief method descriptions
May
Office Hours: open time to discuss data/submissions
Dates: Friday May 23 and Thursday May 29
Time: 9-11 Eastern Time/15-17 Central Europe (for both days)
Jun 13Submission: feedback on initital data products
Jul 31Data Release: all nine full data sets released
Sep 8Check-In: individual e-mails sent to each team
Oct 31
Submission: (1) answers to detailed method questions
(2) final results for all nine data sets
FebMeeting: discuss final report
MarDraft of final report shared with participants
AprSubmit final report

Change Log

October 9, 2025: CCF FWHM/Contrast values for all instruments have been corrected (read more). All HARPS/HARPS-N data have been heliocentric corrected (read more). Please download the new data here. The deadline for submissions has consequently been moved from Oct 15 to Oct 31.

July 31, 2025: All data sets uploaded. Added merged spectra. Debugged CCF pipeline, now iCCF based. New discussion on intrinsic instrument offsets.

May 30, 2025: Changed feedback requested for the initial data release. Deadline is now June 13.

May 29, 2025: Minor changes made to example code notebooks. Redownload for clearer example figures and directory definition.

May 21, 2025: Updated time series and CCF files for the initial data set. The old files contained a bug with the ESSP-derived NEID CCF errors. Please re-download DS1_timeseries.csv and NEID CCF files (~75 files) if they were downloaded before this date.


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