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PLATO Week 7

PLATO Week 7 took place from the 5th to the 7th of December 2018. It was held at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK. More information about the meeting can be found on the meeting's website.

PLATO Week 7 group photo

The scope of this PLATO Week was somewhat different to previous meetings. Owing to the ongoing IPDR which was occupying much of the PLATO payload team, the focus for PLATO Week 7 was on the ground segment partners from the PSM and PDC. As such, almost all of the program was relevant to PSM members.

Of particular interest were:

  • The opening plenary session, at which further information was provided on the upcoming 2019 L2/L3 Requirements Review.
  • An Exoplanet Science (WP11) splinter, which was split into two. The first half focused on the effects of detrending on transit fitting, while the second half looked at possible baseline methods and algorithms.
  • A Stellar Science (WP12) splinter
  • A splinter presenting and discussing the status of the L2 & L3 User Requirements Documents (URDs), and the next steps to move those documents forwards.
  • A lunchtime meeting on interfaces between the different branches of the PSM
  • The kickoff of activities for the ESA led Ground Segment System & Operations Engineering Working Group (GSSOEWG)
  • A splinter discussing so-called 'legacy code' which might be incorporated into the L2 & L3 pipelines.
  • A splinter about the status of work on preparatory and follow-up data
  • The kick-off of Calibration, Processing, and Performance activities


An ESA / PMC progress meeting was held the day before the PLATO Week, on the 4th of December.

Between the 3rd and 5th of December, there was also a PLATO Exoplanet Theory meeting taking place at the IoA.


A full set of documents from PLATO Week 7 can be downloaded from the PLATO Sharepoint (sign-in required).