New Features of the ESO Science Archive's Programmatic Access Layer

Published: 24 Aug 2021
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The programmatic layer of the ESO science archive has been recently upgraded. The main new feature is the support of authorized data searches, but there are other improvements useful to the all users of the ESO programmatic layer.

Authorised data searches are specifically useful to operations and GTO teams (e.g., SPECULOOS, 4MOST, NIRPS, SOXS, SPHERE and ESPRESSO GTO) who have been granted specific permissions to search and access data from observations subject to metadata protection, as per the GTO policy (currently concerning some SPHERE and some ESPRESSO GTO runs).

Both the Table Access Protocol [TAP] for observational data and atmospheric measurements (tap_obs), and the DataLink services now support authentication and authorization. The TAP service for catalogue data (tap_cat) does not require this new functionality, as authorisation is currently not needed for this type of data.

Further information is available. Also, please refer to the dedicated Authentication & Authorisation page and to an accompanying python jupyter notebook to learn more.