CHEOPS QUICK LINKS

This webpage is designed to provide a quick guide to where key information on CHEOPS can be found. In case of questions, please contact the CHEOPS support desk at  cheops-support".at."cosmos.esa.int, where ".at." should be replaced with @.

 

 

WHAT IS CHEOPS, WHAT CAN IT DO?

Two presentations that give first a taster, then a more depth overview of what the CHEOPS is, and what the mission has to offer are available at this link. An in-depth description of the mission can be found in the mission paper by Benz et al. (2021).

 

observing time on CHEOPS

Community observing time on CHEOPS is available through the ESA-run Guest Observers Prohramme. Time is available through annual announcements of opportunity (AOs), and the Discretionary Programme which runs throughout the year. The last AO of the nominal mission closed in March 2022. Observing time is currently available through the Discretionary Programme only. Details of how to apply can be found at this link.

Webpages for past AOs can be found at AO-1, AO-2 and AO-3. Approved programmes awarded time can be found at AO-1 Programmes, AO-2 Programmes, AO-3 Programmes, with the equivalent for the Discretionary Programme available at this link.

USER's GUIDE FOR observers

The CHEOPS Observers Manual  is user's guide to CHEOPS, detailing all information required to use and observe with CHEOPS

 

CHEOPS capabilities/Proposal preparation tools

Tools are available to help observers to assess whether CHEOPS capabilities are a good match to their needs. These include

  • Scheduling Feasibility Checker - a tool to check the visibility of a target with CHEOPS
  • Exposure Time Calculator - a tool to eterminate the precision that may be expected with CHEOPS
  • Reserved Target List Checker - a tool to check whether targets are on the list of targets are in active observing programms from the Guaranteed Observing Programme and the Guest Observers Programme and thus reserved
  • In-orbit updates - links to presentations detailing CHEOPS performances, "tips" from the CHEOPS Science Team and systematics in CHEOPS data 

 

Accessing CHEOPS data

  • All CHEOPS data products and reference files are available through the CHEOPS Mission Archive. Observations taken as part of both the Guaranteed Time Observing Programme and the Guest Observers Programme are subject to a proprietary period of up to 18 months. The mission archive is the access point for both proprietary (downloadable by principle investigators only) and public data.

 

CHEOPS Data products

  • All CHEOPS observations are pipeline-processed at the Science Operations Centre in Geneva. Details of the pipeline can be found in Hoyer et al. (2020) and in the CHEOPS Observers Manual
  • Details of the data products and references files that are available in the archive can be found in the Observers Manual.

 

Anaylsing CHEOPS datA

  • Tools have been developed by the Science Team and by the Community to detrend and further analyse CHEOPS light curves. These are shared for use at the user's own risk, with caveats and warnings that are detailed in the individual documents.
    • pycheops - a python package developed by members of the CHEOPS Science Team for the analysis of CHEOPS light curves. See paper by Maxted et al. atso.
    • linea- an open source, open development Python package written by Brett Morris for fast, linear detrending of CHEOPS photometry
    • PIPE - a photometric extraction package written by Alexis Brandeker that uses PSF photometry on the 60-pixel diameter CHEOPS imagettes
  • In-orbit updates - links to presentations detailing CHEOPS performances, "tips" from the CHEOPS Science Team and systematics in CHEOPS data 

 

Publishing CHEOPS Data

  • When using/publishing CHEOPS data, authors are asked to include the folloiwing text in the acknowledgements:

" CHEOPS is an ESA mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, france, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom"

 

Consortium Member webpage links

Listed below are links to the CHEOPS webpages of CHEOPS Mission Consortium institutes