  The Kepler Mission was designed to identify and characterize transiting
planets in the Kepler Field of View and to determine their occurrence rates.
Emphasis was placed on identification of Earth-size planets orbiting in the
Habitable Zone of their host stars. Science data were acquired for a period of
four years. Long-cadence data with 29.4 min sampling were obtained for ~200,000
individual stellar targets in at least one observing quarter in the primary
Kepler Mission. Light curves for target stars are extracted in the Kepler
Science Data Processing Pipeline, and are searched for transiting planet
signatures. A Threshold Crossing Event is generated in the transit search for
targets where the transit detection threshold is exceeded and transit
consistency checks are satisfied. These targets are subjected to further
scrutiny in the Data Validation (DV) component of the Pipeline. Transiting
planet candidates are characterized in DV, and light curves are searched for
additional planets after transit signatures are modeled and removed. A suite of
diagnostic tests is performed on all candidates to aid in discrimination
between genuine transiting planets and instrumental or astrophysical false
positives. Data products are generated per target and planet candidate to
document and display transiting planet model fit and diagnostic test results.
These products are exported to the Exoplanet Archive at the NASA Exoplanet
Science Institute, and are available to the community. We describe the DV
architecture and diagnostic tests, and provide a brief overview of the data
products. Transiting planet modeling and the search for multiple planets on
individual targets are described in a companion paper. The final revision of
the Kepler Pipeline code base is available to the general public through
GitHub. The Kepler Pipeline has also been modified to support the TESS Mission
which will commence in 2018.
