Early Release of the Expanded Atlas of the Sky in Continuous Gravitational Waves

This expanded atlas significantly enhances the first continuous gravitational wave atlas, covering frequencies from 20 to 1500 Hz and introducing new polarization-specific upper limits. This data is being released early, while outlier follow-up is still in progress.

Data Availability

The atlas is provided in Mapped Vector Library (MVL) format:

• Torrent File, containing:
  • Main data set: O3a_2_atlas.mvl (745 GB)
  • Summary data set: O3a_2_atlas_summary.mvl (86 GB)
  • Spatial index: O3a_2_spatial_index.mvl (163 GB)
• All Examples (tar.gz)
• A Frequency-Resolved Atlas of the Sky in Continuous Gravitational Waves, Vladimir Dergachev, Maria Alessandra Papa, Phys. Rev. X 13, 021020 (2023)
• Early Release of the Expanded Atlas of the Sky in Continuous Gravitational Waves, Vladimir Dergachev and Maria Alessandra Papa, Phys. Rev. D 109, 022007 (2024)
• Functional Upper Limits, Vladimir Dergachev, Phys. Rev. D 110, 085001
• README
• Data Format Description

Accessing the Data

The torrent file is hosted by Academic Torrents. We recommend using a BitTorrent client that supports HTTPS downloads, such as aria2c. For faster downloads, refer to this guide.

The MVL files can be accessed using the C-level libMVL library or the RMVL R package.

Plot and Examples

The plot at the top of the page was generated using the view_summary.R script included in the examples. Additional examples are provided to explore the atlas programmatically. For details, refer to the README.

If you are new to R, here is a brief introduction to R.

Optimized for Solid State Drives

The Mapped Vector Library (MVL) format is optimized for use with solid-state drives (SSDs), which allow efficient random access to the data.

Related Resources

We also provide MVL files for the Gaia DR3 data and other atlas releases.