PCCS2: Planck Catalog of 30-GHz Compact Sources Release 2

The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS2) is a list of discrete Galactic and extragalactic objects detected across the entire sky by the European Space Agency's Planck mission. It supersedes previous catalogs and includes polarization measurements from seven sensitive channels. The catalog was produced by the Planck Low Frequency Instrument Data Processing Center and released by NASA.

Use Cases

• Cross-matching radio and submillimeter sources based on all-sky detection coverage.
• Studying source polarization properties based on polarized flux densities and orientation angles.
• Separating Galactic foreground emissions from the cosmic microwave background based on multi-frequency data.
• Analyzing the completeness of compact source populations based on the catalog's target 80% reliability.

Strengths

• Covers the entire sky, providing a full-sky survey of compact sources.
• Includes polarization data for seven Planck channels, offering multi-frequency information.
• Supersedes previous versions with improved data processing and reduced noise levels.
• Provides two subcatalogs (PCCS2 and PCCS2E) to handle regions with difficult diffuse emission.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical studies.

Provenance

Source

European Space Agency (ESA) Planck mission, data released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Collection Method

Detections from single-frequency maps over the full duration of the Planck mission.

Time Range

Observations initiated on 12 August 2009 following the mission's launch on 14 May 2009.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:37:43.282499; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Entire celestial sphere (all-sky coverage).