Abstract
The Kepler Mission was designed to identify and characterize transiting planets in the Kepler Field of View and to determine their occurrence rates. Emphasis was placed on identification of Earth-size planets orbiting in the Habitable Zone of their host stars. Science data were acquired for a period of four years. Long-cadence data with 29.4 min sampling were obtained for ∼200,000 individual stellar targets in at least one observing quarter in the primary Kepler Mission. Light curves for target stars are extracted in the Kepler Science Data Processing Pipeline, and are searched for transiting planet signatures. A Threshold Crossing Event is generated in the transit search for targets where the transit detection threshold is exceeded and transit consistency checks are satisfied. These targets are subjected to further scrutiny in the Data Validation (DV) component of the Pipeline. Transiting planet candidates are characterized in DV, and light curves are searched for additional planets after transit signatures are modeled and removed. A suite of diagnostic tests is performed on all candidates to aid in discrimination between genuine transiting planets and instrumental or astrophysical false positives. Data products are generated per target and planet candidate to document and display transiting planet model fit and diagnostic test results. These products are exported to the Exoplanet Archive at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, and are available to the community. We describe the DV architecture and diagnostic tests, and provide a brief overview of the data products. Transiting planet modeling and the search for multiple planets on individual targets are described in a companion paper. The final revision of the Kepler Pipeline code base is available to the general public through GitHub. The Kepler Pipeline has also been modified to support the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Mission which is expected to commence in 2018.
Highlights
Threshold Crossing Events (TCEs) are characterized with transiting planet models, light curves are searched for additional transit signatures, and vetting diagnostic tests are performed in Data Validation (DV)
The primary tasks of DV are to characterize transiting planet candidates identified in the Pipeline transit search, to search for additional planets after transit signatures are modeled and removed from target light curves, and to perform a comprehensive suite of diagnostic tests to aid in human and automated vetting of transiting planet candidates identified in the Pipeline
We have described the architecture of the DV component of the Pipeline, the suite of DV diagnostic tests, and the data products produced by DV for vetting Pipeline transiting planet candidates
Summary
An introduction to the Kepler Mission is presented in Section 1.1. The Kepler Science Data Processing Pipeline (hereafter referred to as the Pipeline) is briefly described in Section 1.2. The motivation and context for Pipeline validation of transiting planet candidates is described in Section 1.3.
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