Thursday was published an alternative copy of the bulk data files from Gaia DR2. The advantage of this new copy release by DAPCOM Data Services S.L. (a technological spin-off company of the UPC and the UB) is that it allows reducing the total size of Gaia DR2 approximately a 15%.

This copy is easily downloaded and, this fact shows the important work that is doing the Gaia Group to prepare the releases to the public. In addition, it shows a new solution to data compression developed by DAPCOM.

You can now download Gaia DR2 in csv.fapec format here. There you will also find the scripts used for the gzip-to-fapec conversion, as well as the log files from the process.

Free FAPEC decompression licenses can be obtained from the DAPCOM website.