This is an exciting time in gravitational-wave astronomy! LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA just finished their fourth observing run (O4). Data from the past three observing runs (O1, O2, and O3) and the beginning of O4 (O4a) are publicly available, and include over 200 detections of compact object mergers. And the list continues to grow as more confirmed detections are added.
After you enroll, you will receive a crash-course in gravitational-wave (GW) data analysis. By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- Describe the basics of how LIGO and Virgo record data
- Find and download LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA data
- Make plots of real data and simulated waveforms
- Use matched filtering to identify transient signals in LIGO/Virgo data
- Use parameter estimation to extract astrophysical information from transient signals
This course includes lectures, software tutorials, quiz questions, and a data challenge. Complete the course and data challenge to receive a certificate.