| SPHEREx Quick Release (QR) Overview |
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 SPHEREx Data Explorer |
 Explanatory Supplement |
Overview
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SPHEREx is a NASA Astrophysics Medium Explorer mission that launched in March 2025. During its planned two-year mission, SPHEREx will obtain 0.75-5 micron spectroscopy over the entire sky, with deeper data in the SPHEREx Deep Fields. IRSA will release new SPHEREx Quick Release Spectral Images on a weekly basis, with additional releases of higher-level data products planned over the next three years. IRSA began releasing SPHEREx spectral image data on a weekly basis in July 2025 (Quick Release 1; QR1). In October 2025, IRSA began distributing SPHEREx spectral image data processed with substantially improved calibrations. This new processing, referred to as QR2, includes reprocessed versions of all spectral image data acquired since the start of the mission. Future quick releases will also use the QR2 pipeline. IRSA will continue to provide access to QR1 data for reference. However, QR2 supersedes QR1 and will be the default returned in the SPHEREx Data Explorer and by all IRSA program-friendly APIs. No data acquired after August 21 will be processed with the QR1 pipeline, and previously processed QR1 data will remain available only through January 2026. If you use SPHEREx QR data from the IRSA archive, please cite the appropriate Digital Object Identifier: 10.26131/IRSA629 for QR1, 10.26131/IRSA652 for QR2, and include the following acknowledgement: "This publication makes use of data products from the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx), which is a joint project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, and is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration." |
Data Set Characteristics
| Data Product | Description | Data Access |
|---|---|---|
| Spectral Images QR2 | SPHEREx Spectral Images, 0.75-5.1 microns | |
| Spectral Images QR1 (Superseded by QR2 and only available through January 2026) |
SPHEREx Spectral Images, 0.75-5.1 microns |