Top-Panel: SDSS postage-stamp images of the CALIFA target galaxies, with a FoV of 90"x90". Bottom-Panel: Summary of the vast information contained in the CALIFA data cubes. Shown are, from bottom to top, (i) the light distribution in the V-band; (ii) the stellar population luminosity-weighted age, derived from an analysis of the star-formation histories; (iii) the H-alpha velocity map and (iv) the 3D representation of the pure gas emission cube (stellar population subtracted) including the H-alpha and [NII] doublet (with longer wavelengths on top).

DR3 overview

The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey is one of the largest IFS surveys performed to date. At its completion it now contains >600 galaxies, observed with the PMAS spectrograph in the PPAK mode, covering the full spatial extent of these galaxies out to at least two effective radii. The wavelength range between 3700 and 7500 Å is sampled with two spectroscopic configurations, a high resolution mode (V1200, R~1700, 3700-4200 Å), and a low resolution mode (V500, R~850, 3750-7500 Å). A detailed explanation of the survey is given in the CALIFA Presentation Article (Sánchez et al. 2012).

The third CALIFA Data Release (DR3) provides to the public the fully reduced and quality controlled datacubes of 667 objects in total. Out of them, 646 objects have data cubes in the V500 and 484 in the V1200 setup. Each datacube contains ~1000 independent spectra, thus in total this DR comprises ~400,000 total independent spectra (~1.5 millon after cube reconstruction). The details of the data included in this DR are described in the CALIFA DR3 Article (S@aacute;nchez et al. in prep). The differences in the data reduction pipeline adopted for this dataset are described in this article too, in comparison with the solution adopted for DR1 (Husemann et al. 2013) and DR2 (Garcia Benito et al. 2015). The complete list of the DR3 objects for which we deliver data can be found in the following webpage.

The galaxies fall into two groups. The first is the main sample, which has been observed following reproducible selection criteria as a subset of the CALIFA mother sample. The mother sample is described in detail in the CALIFA sample characterization article (Walcher et al. 2014). This article provides detailed information on the photometric, morphological and environmental properties of the galaxies, and a description of the statistical properties of the full sample. The second group is the extension sample, which was designed to cover galaxies that are rare in the overall galaxy population and therefore not well covered by the limited sample size of the CALIFA main sample. Tables with the physical properties of the galaxies are also delivered together with the DR3 datacubes through the sample characterization and quality control webpage.

Access to DR3 data

• DR3: List of Objects included in this Data Release.




• SDSS postage-stamp images of the released galaxies.




• Sample Characterization and Quality Control Tables.




• Direct access to the V500 datacubes.




• Direct access to the V1200 datacubes.




• Direct access to the COMB (V500+V1200) datacubes.

Acknowledgement requirements

The use of DR3 CALIFA data is free, but bound to the following license conditions:

• (1) Any publication, academic study, poster, presentation or talk using CALIFA data should include the following two acknowledgements:
  • "This study uses data provided by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey (https://califa.caha.es/)."
  • "Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-Planck-Institut fűr Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC)."

  Any distribution of CALIFA data to third parties should include a reference to this webpage and the above publishing requirements.




• (2) The following articles must be cited:
  • Sanchez et al., A&A, submitted.: DR3 Article.
  • Sanchez et al. 2012: CALIFA Presentation Article.
  • Walcher et al. 2014: CALIFA Sample Characterization Article.

Further information

• Webpage of the 2nd CALIFA Data Release.




• Webpage of the 1st CALIFA Data Release.




• For additional data please consult the Calar Alto Archives.