What kind of time series (light curve) data product is the Kepler Project planning to release?
For at least the first year the Project is producing a light curve using a “simple extraction analysis.” In the following year or two the Project plans to release two new products, both “optimal extraction” and “differential analysis” techniques. No details on these techniques are available at this writing. Information from the GO office takes precedence over this response. • In what units are the time series light curves given? The time units are seconds (SI). The “flux” units are “electrons per cadence” and may be thought of as an instrumental flux unit closely approximating a linearized unit (for unsaturated pixels). Currently there are no plans for the Project to produce a product in a calibrated absolute magnitude system. Information from the GO office takes precedence over this response. • UTC, barycentric time, MJDs, etc. – What does Kepler use? There are several FITS keywords in the Kepler data headers that relate to time, and these have been updated for the June, 2010 release.
