Scope of the First CTA Data Challenge

The primary goal of the :ref:`First CTA Data Challenge <glossary_1dc>` is to make the members of the CTA Consortium Science Working Groups familiar with the CTA data format and tools and to stimulate the simulation and benchmarking activities in the groups. A secondary goal is to test CTA Science Analysis tools and to provide User feedback to the code developers.

The data distributed in the :ref:`First CTA Data Challenge <glossary_1dc>` are high-level data in form of :ref:`event lists <glossary_eventlist>` and :ref:`Instrument Response Functions <glossary_irf>` (data level 3). The :ref:`event lists <glossary_eventlist>` have been simulated from high-level :ref:`Instrument Response Functions <glossary_irf>` that correspond to an ideal CTA with good and stable atmosphere and instrument conditions; only zenith angles of 20 degrees and 40 degrees (TBC) have been simulated.

Data are provided for the Baseline arrays and the Threshold Implementation.

Two Key Science Projects (KSPs) have been simulated using realistic pointing patterns:

• the Galactic Plane Scan (GPS)
• the extragalactic survey

The source model used for the simulations is distributed together with the data to the CTA Consortium Science Working Groups, so that analysis results can be compared to the Monte Carlo truth.