The Early Data Release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
DESI Collaboration, A. G. Adame, J. Aguilar, S. Ahlen, S. Alam, G. Aldering, D. M. Alexander, R. Alfarsy, C. Allende Prieto, M. Alvarez, O. Alves, A. Anand, F. Andrade-Oliveira, E. Armengaud, J. Asorey, S. Avila, A. Aviles, S. Bailey, A. Balaguera-Antolínez, O. Ballester, C. Baltay, A. Bault, J. Bautista, J. Behera, S. F. Beltran, S. BenZvi, L. Beraldo e Silva, J. R. Bermejo-Climent, A. Berti, R. Besuner, F. Beutler, D. Bianchi, C. Blake, R. Blum, A. S. Bolton, S. Brieden, A. Brodzeller, D. Brooks, Z. Brown, E. Buckley-Geer, E. Burtin, L. Cabayol-Garcia, Z. Cai, R. Canning, L. Cardiel-Sas, A. Carnero Rosell, F. J. Castander, J. L. Cervantes-Cota, S. Chabanier, E. Chaussidon, J. Chaves-Montero, S. Chen, X. Chen, C. Chuang, T. Claybaugh, S. Cole, A. P. Cooper, A. Cuceu, T. M. Davis, K. Dawson, R. de Belsunce, R. de la Cruz, A. de la Macorra, J. Della Costa, A. de Mattia, R. Demina, U. Demirbozan, J. DeRose, A. Dey, B. Dey, G. Dhungana, J. Ding, Z. Ding, P. Doel, R. Doshi, K. Douglass, A. Edge, S. Eftekharzadeh, D. J. Eisenstein, A. Elliott, S. Escoffier, P. Fagrelius, X. Fan, K. Fanning, V. A. Fawcett, S. Ferraro, J. Ereza, B. Flaugher, A. Font-Ribera, D. Forero-Sánchez, J. E. Forero-Romero, C. S. Frenk, B. T. Gänsicke, L. Á. García, J. García-Bellido, C. Garcia-Quintero, L. H. Garrison, H. Gil-Marín, J. Golden-Marx, S. Gontcho A Gontcho, A. X. Gonzalez-Morales, V. Gonzalez-Perez, C. Gordon, O. Graur, D. Green, D. Gruen, J. Guy, B. Hadzhiyska, C. Hahn, J. J. Han, M. M. S Hanif, H. K. Herrera-Alcantar, K. Honscheid, J. Hou, C. Howlett, D. Huterer, V. Iršič, M. Ishak, A. Jacques, A. Jana, L. Jiang, J. Jimenez, Y. P. Jing, S. Joudaki, E. Jullo, S. Juneau, N. Kizhuprakkat, N. G. Karaçaylı, T. Karim, R. Kehoe, S. Kent, A. Khederlarian, S. Kim, D. Kirkby, T. Kisner, F. Kitaura, J. Kneib, S. E. Koposov, A. Kovács, A. Kremin, A. Krolewski, B. L'Huillier, O. Lahav, A. Lambert, C. Lamman, T. -W. Lan, M. Landriau, D. Lang, J. U. Lange, J. Lasker, A. Leauthaud, L. Le Guillou, M. E. Levi, T. S. Li, E. Linder, A. Lyons, C. Magneville, M. Manera, C. J. Manser, D. Margala, P. Martini, P. McDonald, G. E. Medina, L. Medina-Varela, A. Meisner, J. Mena-Fernández, J. Meneses-Rizo, M. Mezcua, R. Miquel, P. Montero-Camacho, J. Moon, S. Moore, J. Moustakas, E. Mueller, J. Mundet, A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez, A. D. Myers, S. Nadathur, L. Napolitano, R. Neveux, J. A. Newman, J. Nie, R. Nikutta, G. Niz, P. Norberg, H. E. Noriega, E. Paillas, N. Palanque-Delabrouille, A. Palmese, P. Zhiwei, D. Parkinson, S. Penmetsa, W. J. Percival, A. Pérez-Fernández, I. Pérez-Ràfols, M. Pieri, C. Poppett, A. Porredon, S. Pothier, F. Prada, R. Pucha, A. Raichoor, C. Ramírez-Pérez, S. Ramirez-Solano, M. Rashkovetskyi, C. Ravoux, A. Rocher, C. Rockosi, A. J. Ross, G. Rossi, R. Ruggeri, V. Ruhlmann-Kleider, C. G. Sabiu, K. Said, A. Saintonge, L. Samushia, E. Sanchez, C. Saulder, E. Schaan, E. F. Schlafly, D. Schlegel, D. Scholte, M. Schubnell, H. Seo, A. Shafieloo, R. Sharples, W. Sheu, J. Silber, F. Sinigaglia, M. Siudek, Z. Slepian, A. Smith, M. T. Soumagnac, D. Sprayberry, L. Stephey, J. Suárez-Pérez, Z. Sun, T. Tan, G. Tarlé, R. Tojeiro, L. A. Ureña-López, R. Vaisakh, D. Valcin, F. Valdes, M. Valluri, M. Vargas-Magaña, A. Variu, L. Verde, M. Walther, B. Wang, M. S. Wang, B. A. Weaver, N. Weaverdyck, R. H. Wechsler, M. White, Y. Xie, J. Yang, C. Yèche, J. Yu, S. Yuan, H. Zhang, Z. Zhang, C. Zhao, Z. Zheng, R. Zhou, Z. Zhou, H. Zou, S. Zou, Y. Zu
TL;DR
DESI addresses the need for a massive, multi-class spectroscopic survey to constrain dark energy via BAO and RSD measurements. The Early Data Release (EDR) from Survey Validation (SV) provides public access to good-quality spectra and derived data products from Milky Way and extragalactic targets, plus a set of secondary programs. The release comprises roughly 1.8 million spectra across MWS, BGS, LRG, ELG, and QSO samples, along with Large-Scale Structure (LSS) catalogs and data-processing demonstrations. The paper details data quality, processing pipelines, access mechanisms, and plans for future releases, establishing a resource for cosmology and galaxy evolution studies.
Abstract
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed its five-month Survey Validation in May 2021. Spectra of stellar and extragalactic targets from Survey Validation constitute the first major data sample from the DESI survey. This paper describes the public release of those spectra, the catalogs of derived properties, and the intermediate data products. In total, the public release includes good-quality spectral information from 466,447 objects targeted as part of the Milky Way Survey, 428,758 as part of the Bright Galaxy Survey, 227,318 as part of the Luminous Red Galaxy sample, 437,664 as part of the Emission Line Galaxy sample, and 76,079 as part of the Quasar sample. In addition, the release includes spectral information from 137,148 objects that expand the scope beyond the primary samples as part of a series of secondary programs. Here, we describe the spectral data, data quality, data products, Large-Scale Structure science catalogs, access to the data, and references that provide relevant background to using these spectra.