Planck data processing centers

TL;DR: The success of the Planck mission heavily relies on careful planning, design and implementation of its ground segment facilities as discussed by the authors, including two Data Processing Centres (DPCs), which are operated by the consortia responsible for building the instruments forming the scientific payload of Planck.

Abstract: The success of the Planck mission heavily relies on careful planning, design and implementation of its ground segment facilities. Among these, two Data Processing Centres (DPCs) are being implemented, which are operated by the consortia responsible for building the instruments forming the scientific payload of Planck. The two DPCs, together with the Mission Operations Centre (MOC) and the Herschel Science Centre (HSC), are the major elements of the Herschel/Planck scientific ground segment. The Planck DPCs are responsible for the operation of the instruments, and for the production, delivery and archiving of the scientific data products, which can be considered as the final results of the mission: · Calibrated time series data, for each receiver, after removal of systematic features and attitude reconstruction. · Photometrically and astrometrically calibrated maps of the sky in the observed bands. · Sky maps of the main astrophysical components. · Catalogs of sources detected in the sky maps of the main astrophysical components. · CMB power spectrum coefficients. During the development phase, the DPCs are furthermore responsible for the production of data simulating realistically the behaviour of the instruments in flight, and for the support to instrument testing activities. In this paper, some aspects related to the control of the Planck instruments, to the data flow and to the data processing for Planck are described, and an overview of the activities being carried out is provided.