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The Explanatory Supplement produced by the Planck Collaboration is a reference text accompanying the public data delivered from the operations of the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite during its mission, and includes descriptions of the products from all data releases. There are three data releases of Planck products:

• PR1 in 2013 (*.R1.??)
• PR2 in 2015 (*.R2.??)
• PR3 in 2016 (*.R3.??)

The descriptions from the 2013 and 2015 products can be found under Previous Releases at the end of each subsection. In some cases there will not be a 2015 or 2016 version of a product, in which case the description of the last version is shown.

1. Introduction
   1. The Planck mission
   2. The spacecraft
   3. Ground segment and operations
   4. Survey scanning and performance
   5. Questions and answers
2. The Instruments
   1. HFI design, qualification, and performance
      1. Cryogenics
      2. Cold optics
      3. Detection chain
      4. Operations
      5. Performance summary
      6. Annexes
   2. LFI design, qualification, and performance
      1. Instrument description
      2. Ground tests
      3. In-flight calibration
      4. Performance summary
      5. Systematic effects
      6. Sorption cooler
      7. Annexes
3. Data processing
   1. HFI data processing
      1. Pre-processing
      2. TOI processing
      3. ADC correction
      4. Beams
      5. Mapmaking
      6. Spectral response
      7. Internal overall validation
      8. Summary of HFI data characteristics
   2. LFI data processing
      1. Pre-processing
      2. TOI processing
      3. Beams
      4. Galactic stray light removal
      5. Mapmaking
      6. Systematic effects uncertainties
      7. Internal overall validation
      8. Summary of LFI data characteristics
   3. HFI/LFI joint data processing
      1. Detector pointing
      2. Compact Source Catalogues
      3. Astrophysical component separation
      4. CMB power spectra and Planck likelihood code
4. Planck Legacy Archive: mission products
   1. Maps
      1. Frequency maps (Sky temperature and polarization maps)
      2. CMB maps
      3. Foreground maps (Astrophysical component and specially processed maps)
      4. Correction maps
      5. Masks
      6. Simulation data
      7. Dates of observations
   2. Catalogues:
      1. PCCS
      2. PSZ
      3. PGCC
   3. Cosmology
      1. CMB spectrum and likelihood code
      2. Cosmological parameters and MC chains
   4. Time-ordered data
   5. Beams
      1. Scanning beams
      2. Optical beams
      3. Effective beams
   6. Instrument model
   7. Software utilities
      1. Planck Sky Model simulation tool
      2. Mapmaking from timelines and rings tools
      3. FEBeCoP Effective beam extraction and convulution tools
      4. Unit conversion and color correction
5. Operational data
   1. Survey history data
   2. Satellite history data
   3. Planck operational state history
   4. Space radiation environment monitor
6. Appendix
   1. Glossary
   2. List of acronyms