QLP

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is the first high-precision full-sky photometry survey in space. The MIT QLP team produces light curves from a magnitude limited (TESS magnitude < 13.5) set of stars and other stationary luminous objects from the TESS Full Frame Images (FFIs). The photometric precision roughly follows the theoretical predictions pre-launch. The data reduction process is described in the primary references (Huang et al. 2020a and Huang et al. 2020b). Additional pages in the full QLP data validation report provide additional metrics for decision-making. These plots are useful for diagnosing whether the source of transit-like variability is on target or from a nearby blended source, which is particularly important for FFI data.  Some of these data validation pages are available on the MIT TOI Portal.

The first data release consists of QLP light curves for targets in Sectors 1-26. These data products cover the two-year TESS Primary Mission and include 14,773,977 and 9,602,103 individual light curve segments in the Southern and Northern hemispheres, respectively. The second data release consists of 10-minute cadence light curves for 9.1 million stars from the first year of the Extended Mission (Sectors 27-39). Future deliveries of Extended Mission light curve data for Sectors 40 and onwards are expected to be released starting in late 2021.

For more details on QLP, please see the QLP webpage at https://tess.mit.edu/qlp/.

Acknowledgements

Please include the following acknowledgement in published material that makes use of QLP-produced High Level Science Products:

"We acknowledge the use of TESS High Level Science Products (HLSP) produced by the Quick-Look Pipeline (QLP) at the TESS Science Office at MIT, which are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission directorate."

The QLP team encourages users of the QLP Extended Mission HLSP (QLP light curves starting with Sector 27), which are made available on a timely and voluntary basis to the broader astronomical community, to invite one QLP team member for co-authorship and consultation on data analysis. Note that this is not a requirement for using QLP HLSP files or publishing results based on them. Please contact Michelle Kunimoto (mkuni@mit.edu) for a recommendation of which member to include if you decide to invite a QLP member to be a co-author on your QLP-based paper.

Sector Availability

Each Sector will have tar files available that contain every light curve (in both FITS and ASCII text format).  When available, that Sector's "Bundle" link will become active.  NOTE: Each bundle is large, between 20-200 GB for Sectors 1-26, larger for the Extended Mission Sectors that will begin with Sector 27.  In addition to the light curve bundles, the data will also be available in the MAST Portal and through the MAST APIs like astroquery.mast.  NOTE: Currently the interactive plot tool in the Portal does not work for QLP HLSP light curves.

Target List files are provided that contain the TIC ID, R.A. (J2000, deg), and Dec.(J2000, deg) for targets that have QLP light curves.  For those who have very large target lists, it is recommended you download these .csv files first to cross-match with your list of targets BEFORE you query MAST to search for and download QLP data products.

Tips On Using Portal and astroquery.mast With QLP Data

How Do I Do A Search For Only Mission-Produced Light Curves, Only QLP Light Curves, Or Both?

I Have One Or More Targets With Known TIC IDs, How Do I Retrieve The Light Curves For Them Efficiently?