Context. We present the early installment of the third Gaia data release, Gaia EDR3, consisting of astrometry and photometry for 1.8 billion sources brighter than magnitude 21, complemented with the list of radial velocities from Gaia DR2. Aims. A summary of the contents of Gaia EDR3 is presented, accompanied by a discussion on the differences with respect to Gaia DR2 and an overview of the main limitations which are present in the survey. Recommendations are made on the responsible use of Gaia EDR3 results. Methods. The raw data collected with the Gaia instruments during the first 34 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium and turned into this early third data release, which represents a major advance with respect to Gaia DR2 in terms of astrometric and photometric precision, accuracy, and homogeneity. Results. Gaia EDR3 contains celestial positions and the apparent brightness in G for approximately 1.8 billion sources. For 1.5 billion of those sources, parallaxes, proper motions, and the (GBP − GRP) colour are also available. The passbands for G, GBP, and GRP are provided as part of the release. For ease of use, the 7 million radial velocities from Gaia DR2 are included in this release, after the removal of a small number of spurious values. New radial velocities will appear as part of Gaia DR3. Finally, Gaia EDR3 represents an updated materialisation of the celestial reference frame (CRF) in the optical, the Gaia-CRF3, which is based solely on extragalactic sources. The creation of the source list for Gaia EDR3 includes enhancements that make it more robust with respect to high proper motion stars, and the disturbing effects of spurious and partially resolved sources. The source list is largely the same as that for Gaia DR2, but it does feature new sources and there are some notable changes. The source list will not change for Gaia DR3. Conclusions. Gaia EDR3 represents a significant advance over Gaia DR2, with parallax precisions increased by 30 per cent, proper motion precisions increased by a factor of 2, and the systematic errors in the astrometry suppressed by 30–40% for the parallaxes and by a factor ~2.5 for the proper motions. The photometry also features increased precision, but above all much better homogeneity across colour, magnitude, and celestial position. A single passband for G, GBP, and GRP is valid over the entire magnitude and colour range, with no systematics above the 1% level

Context. The second Gaia data release is based on 22 months of mission data with an average of 0.9 billion individual CCD observations per day. A data volume of this size and granularity requires a robust and reliable but still flexible system to achieve the demanding accuracy and precision constraints that Gaia is capable of delivering. Aims. We aim to describe the input data, the treatment of blue photometer/red photometer (BP/RP) low-resolution spectra required to produce the integrated GBP and GRP fluxes, the process used to establish the internal Gaia photometric system, and finally, the generation of the mean source photometry from the calibrated epoch data for Gaia DR2. Methods. The internal Gaia photometric system was initialised using an iterative process that is solely based on Gaia data. A set of calibrations was derived for the entire Gaia DR2 baseline and then used to produce the final mean source photometry. The photometric catalogue contains 2.5 billion sources comprised of three different grades depending on the availability of colour information and the procedure used to calibrate them: 1.5 billion gold, 144 million silver, and 0.9 billion bronze. These figures reflect the results of the photometric processing; the content of the data release will be different due to the validation and data quality filters applied during the catalogue preparation. The photometric processing pipeline, PhotPipe, implements all the processing and calibration workflows in terms of Map/Reduce jobs based on the Hadoop platform. This is the first example of a processing system for a large astrophysical survey project to make use of these technologies. Results. The improvements in the generation of the integrated G–band fluxes, in the attitude modelling, in the cross-matching, and and in the identification of spurious detections led to a much cleaner input stream for the photometric processing. This, combined with the improvements in the definition of the internal photometric system and calibration flow, produced high-quality photometry. Hadoop proved to be an excellent platform choice for the implementation of PhotPipe in terms of overall performance, scalability, downtime, and manpower required for operations and maintenance.

'The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com .' Copyright Blackwell Publishing DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13924.xThe UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey (GPS) is one of the five near-infrared Public Legacy Surveys that are being undertaken by the UKIDSS consortium, using the Wide Field Camera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescop

Aims. We describe the photometric content of the second data release of the Gaia project (Gaia DR2) and its validation along with the quality of the data. Methods. The validation was mainly carried out using an internal analysis of the photometry. External comparisons were also made, but were limited by the precision and systematics that may be present in the external catalogues used. Results. In addition to the photometric quality assessment, we present the best estimates of the three photometric passbands. Various colour-colour transformations are also derived to enable the users to convert between the Gaia and commonly used passbands. Conclusions. The internal analysis of the data shows that the photometric calibrations can reach a precision as low as 2 mmag on individual CCD measurements. Other tests show that systematic effects are present in the data at the 10 mmag level.

Context. Gaia Early Data Release 3 (Gaia EDR3) contains astrometry and photometry results for about 1.8 billion sources based on observations collected by the European Space Agency Gaia satellite during the first 34 months of its operational phase. Aims. In this paper, we focus on the photometric content, describing the input data, the algorithms, the processing, and the validation of the results. Particular attention is given to the quality of the data and to a number of features that users may need to take into account to make the best use of the Gaia EDR3 catalogue. Methods. The processing broadly followed the same procedure as for Gaia DR2, but with significant improvements in several aspects of the blue and red photometer (BP and RP) preprocessing and in the photometric calibration process. In particular, the treatment of the BP and RP background has been updated to include a better estimation of the local background, and the detection of crowding effects has been used to exclude affected data from the calibrations. The photometric calibration models have also been updated to account for flux loss over the whole magnitude range. Significant improvements in the modelling and calibration of the Gaia point and line spread functions have also helped to reduce a number of instrumental effects that were still present in DR2. Results. Gaia EDR3 contains 1.806 billion sources with G-band photometry and 1.540 billion sources with GBP and GRP photometry. The median uncertainty in the G-band photometry, as measured from the standard deviation of the internally calibrated mean photometry for a given source, is 0.2 mmag at magnitude G = 10–14, 0.8 mmag at G ≈ 17, and 2.6 mmag at G ≈ 19. The significant magnitude term found in the Gaia DR2 photometry is no longer visible, and overall there are no trends larger than 1 mmag mag−1. Using one passband over the whole colour and magnitude range leaves no systematics above the 1% level in magnitude in any of the bands, and a larger systematic is present for a very small sample of bright and blue sources. A detailed description of the residual systematic effects is provided. Overall the quality of the calibrated mean photometry in Gaia EDR3 is superior with respect to DR2 for all bands.

Context. The Gaia second Data Release (DR2) presents a first mapping of full-sky RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids observed by the spacecraft during the initial 22 months of science operations. Aims. The Specific Objects Study (SOS) pipeline, developed to validate and fully characterise Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars (SOS Cep&RRL) observed by Gaia, has been presented in the documentation and papers accompanying the Gaia first Data Release. Here we describe how the SOS pipeline was modified to allow for processing the Gaia multi-band (G, GBP, and GRP) time-series photometry of all-sky candidate variables and produce specific results for confirmed RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids that are published in the DR2 catalogue. Methods. The SOS Cep&RRL processing uses tools such as the period–amplitude and the period–luminosity relations in the G band. For the analysis of the Gaia DR2 candidates we also used tools based on the GBP and GRP photometry, such as the period–Wesenheit relation in (G, GRP). Results. Multi-band time-series photometry and characterisation by the SOS Cep&RRL pipeline are published in Gaia DR2 for 150 359 such variables (9575 classified as Cepheids and 140 784 as RR Lyrae stars) distributed throughout the sky. The sample includes variables in 87 globular clusters and 14 dwarf galaxies (the Magellanic Clouds, 5 classical and 7 ultra-faint dwarfs). To the best of our knowledge, as of 25 April 2018, the variability of 50 570 of these sources (350 Cepheids and 50 220 RR Lyrae stars) has not been reported before in the literature, therefore they are likely new discoveries by Gaia. An estimate of the interstellar absorption is published for 54 272 fundamental-mode RR Lyrae stars from a relation based on the G-band amplitude and the pulsation period. Metallicities derived from the Fourier parameters of the light curves are also released for 64 932 RR Lyrae stars and 3738 fundamental-mode classical Cepheids with periods shorter than 6.3 days.

Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 catalogues -a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) -and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr −1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 Hipparcos stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr −1 . For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data.

Accepted by MNRAS. 30 pages, 15 figures (some at reduced resolution due to upload restrictions - full res version at http://surveys.roe.ac.uk/wsa/pubs.html)This paper defines the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Early Data Release (EDR). UKIDSS is a set of five large near-infra-red surveys defined by Lawrence et al. (2006), being undertaken with the UK Infra-red Telescope (UKIRT) Wide Field Camera (WFCAM). The programme began in May 2005 and has an expected duration of seven years. Each survey uses some or all of the broadband filter complement ZYJHK. The EDR is the first public release of data to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) community. All worldwide releases occur after a delay of 18 months from the ESO release. The EDR provides a small sample dataset, ~50 sq.deg (about 1% of the whole of UKIDSS), that is a lower limit to the expected quality of future survey data releases. In addition, an EDR+ dataset contains all EDR data plus extra data of similar quality, but for areas not observed in all of the required filters (amounting to ~220 sq.deg). The first large data release, DR1, will occur in mid-2006. We provide details of the observational implementation, the data reduction, the astrometric and photometric calibration, and the quality control procedures. We summarise the data coverage and quality (seeing, ellipticity, photometricity, depth) for each survey and give a brief guide to accessing the images and catalogues from the WFCAM Science Archive