O2 data set now available
LIGO and Virgo have made publicly available the strain data from the O2 observing run. These data are now available through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center. The O2 observing run began on the 30th of November, 2016 and ended on the 25th of August, 2017. This was the second observing run of Advanced LIGO, and the first observing run of Advanced Virgo, which joined O2 on the 1st of August, 2017. The release includes over 150 days of recorded data from each of the two LIGO observatories, as well as 20 days of recorded data from Virgo, making this the largest data set of 'advanced' gravitational-wave detectors to date.
Observations in O2 include seven binary black hole mergers, as well as the first binary neutron star merger observed in gravitational waves, all recently published in the GWTC-1 catalogue. Along with the strain data, the release contains detailed documentation and links to open-source software tools. As with previous data releases, the O2 data set should be useful for both scientific investigations and educational activities.
Image: The figure shows the sensitivity achieved during O2 of the three detectors in the network.
Image credit: EGO/Virgo Collaboration/Perciballi
📖 Research articles: GWTC-1 scientific papers
📖 Dissemination material on GWTC-1 (in several languages)