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1. The Impact of Satellite Constellations on Solar System Science With LSST

   https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-856  

   Eggl, Siegfried; Cornwall, Samuel; Dadighat, Michelle; Jangid, Nayan; Peel, Michael; Rawls, Meredith L; Skinner, Mark A; Tyson, J Anthony; Walker, Constance E (July 2025, Europlanet / American Astronomical Society)

   Ground-based astronomical surveys such as the much anticipated Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) [1] face new challenges due to the increasing number of satellites in Low and Medium Earth Orbit (LEO & MEO). With hundreds of thousands of artificial satellites likely to be launched in the near future as estimated by the IAU CPS, satellite trails in astronomical images will become frequent enough to require some form of mitigation. Limiting the maximum brightness of artificial satellites to below 7th magnitude is one of the proposed means to reduce satellite impact on Rubin data, which prevents the most severe systematic errors and widespread data loss in LSST camera sensors [2]. Glints caused by satellites and space debris are also expected to pollute LSST alerts [3].Brighter objects may require active satellite-avoidance scheduling schemes such as investigated by Hu et al. [4]. The IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS) in cooperation with the Aerospace Corp. is currently developing online services with global API access, such as SatChecker that enable satellite-avoidance [5,6].  However, dodging satellites would effectively decrease observing time in large sky surveys such as the LSST. In this contribution we report updates on satellite brightness mitigation efforts including technologies developed by both satellite constellation operators to darken their constellations as well as new IAU CPS tools for astronomers intended to help tackle this challenge. We also discuss the potential satellite constellation related losses in Solar System Object (SSO) discovery based on recent Sorcha simulations [7].Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation through the award Collaborative Research: SWIFT-SAT: Minimizing Science Impact on LSST and Observatories Worldwide through Accurate Predictions of Satellite Position and Optical Brightness NSF Award Numbers 2332736 and 2332735. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.References:  [1] Ivezić, Ž., et al. (2019) “LSST: From science drivers to reference design and anticipated data products.” The Astrophysical Journal 873.2 : 111. [2] Tyson, J.A. et al. (2020) “Mitigation of LEO satellite brightness and trail effects on the Rubin Observatory LSST,” The Astronomical Journal, 160(5), p. 226. [3] Tyson, J.A., Snyder, A., Polin D., Rawls, M.L. and Ivezić Ž. (2024) Expected Impact of Glints from Space Debris in the LSST. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 966, no. 2 : L38. [4] Hu, J.A. et al. (2022) “Satellite constellation avoidance with the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time,” The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 941(1). [5] IAU CPS SatChecker (https://satchecker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/fov.html), accessed 2025 May 2. [6] Skinner, M. A., Coursey, C.D., and George, E.R. (2023). Dark and Quiet Skies: A predictive technique to mitigate the impact of satellite reflections on astronomical observatories. 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Baku, Azerbaijan, 2-6 October 2023. [7] Schwamb, M. et al. “Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time”, The Planetary Science Journal (in press). 

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2. From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST

   Breivik, Katelyn; Connolly, Andrew; Ford, Saavik; and, others (August 2022, https://arxiv.org/)

   The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) dataset will dramatically alter our understanding of the Universe, from the origins of the Solar System to the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Much of this research will depend on the existence of robust, tested, and scalable algorithms, software, and services. Identifying and developing such tools ahead of time has the potential to significantly accelerate the delivery of early science from LSST. Developing these collaboratively, and making them broadly available, can enable more inclusive and equitable collaboration on LSST science.iv To facilitate such opportunities, a community workshop entitled “From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST” was organized by the LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing (LINCC) and partners, and held at the Flatiron Institute in New York, March 28-30th 2022. The workshop included over 50 in-person attendees invited from over 300 applications. It identified seven key software areas of need: (i) scalable cross-matching and distributed joining of catalogs, (ii) robust photometric redshift determination, (iii) software for determination of selection functions, (iv) frameworks for scalable time-series analyses, (v) services for image access and reprocessing at scale, (vi) object image access (cutouts) and analysis at scale, and (vii) scalable job execution systems. This white paper summarizes the discussions of this workshop. It considers the motivating science use cases, identified cross-cutting algorithms, software, and services, their high-level technical specifications, and the principles of inclusive collaborations needed to develop them. We provide it as a useful roadmap of needs, as well as to spur action and collaboration between groups and individuals looking to develop reusable software for early LSST science. 

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3. A Gateway to Astronomical Image Processing: Vera C. RubinObservatory LSST Science Pipelines on AWS

   Bektesevic, Dino; Chiang, Hsin-Fang; Lim, Kian-Tat; Miller, Todd L.; Thain, Greg; Jenness, Tim; Bosch, James; Salnikov, Andrei; Connolly, Andrew (October 2020, Gateways 2020, Online)

   null (Ed.)

   The Legacy Survey of Space and Time, operated by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, is a 10-year astronomical survey due to start operations in 2022 that will image half the sky every three nights. LSST will produce ~20TB of raw data per night which will be calibrated and analyzed in almost real-time. Given the volume of LSST data, the traditional subset-download-process paradigm of data reprocessing faces significant challenges. We describe here, the first steps towards a gateway for astronomical science that would enable astronomers to analyze images and catalogs at scale. In this first step, we focus on executing the Rubin LSST Science Pipelines, a collection of image and catalog processing algorithms, on Amazon Web Services (AWS). We describe our initial impressions of the performance, scalability, and cost of deploying such a system in the cloud. 

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4. A precise photometric ratio via laser excitation of the sodium layer – I. One-photon excitation using 342.78 nm light

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1621  

   Albert, Justin E; Budker, Dmitry; Chance, Kelly; Gordon, Iouli E; Pedreros Bustos, Felipe; Pospelov, Maxim; Rochester, Simon M; Sadeghpour, H R (October 2021, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   ABSTRACT The largest uncertainty on measurements of dark energy using type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) is presently due to systematics from photometry; specifically to the relative uncertainty on photometry as a function of wavelength in the optical spectrum. We show that a precise constraint on relative photometry between the visible and near-infrared can be achieved at upcoming survey telescopes, such as at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, via a laser source tuned to the 342.78 nm vacuum excitation wavelength of neutral sodium atoms. Using a high-power laser, this excitation will produce an artificial star, which we term a ‘laser photometric ratio star’ (LPRS) of de-excitation light in the mesosphere at wavelengths in vacuum of 589.16, 589.76, 818.55, and 819.70 nm, with the sum of the numbers of 589.16 and 589.76 nm photons produced by this process equal to the sum of the numbers of 818.55 and 819.70 nm photons, establishing a precise calibration ratio between, for example, the r and $$z$$ filters of the LSST camera at the Rubin Observatory. This technique can thus provide a novel mechanism for establishing a spectrophotometric calibration ratio of unprecedented precision for upcoming telescopic observations across astronomy and atmospheric physics; thus greatly improving the performance of upcoming measurements of dark energy parameters using type SNeIa. The second paper of this pair describes an alternative technique to achieve a similar, but brighter, LPRS than the technique described in this paper, by using two lasers near resonances at 589.16 and 819.71 nm, rather than the single 342.78 nm on-resonance laser technique described in this paper. 

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5. The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts for the enhanced Large Aperture Telescope

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/08/034  

   Abitbol, M; Abril-Cabezas, I; Adachi, S; Ade, P; Adler, AE; Agrawal, P; Aguirre, J; Ahmed, Z; Aiola, S; Alford, T; et al (August 2025, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics)

   Abstract We describe updated scientific goals for the wide-field, millimeter-wave survey that will be produced by the Simons Observatory (SO). Significant upgrades to the 6-meter SO Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) are expected to be complete by 2028, and will include a doubled mapping speed with 30,000 new detectors and an automated data reduction pipeline. In addition, a new photovoltaic array will supply most of the observatory's power. The LAT survey will cover about 60% of the sky at a regular observing cadence, with five times the angular resolution and ten times the map depth of thePlancksatellite. The science goals are to: (1) determine the physical conditions in the early universe and constrain the existence of new light particles; (2) measure the integrated distribution of mass, electron pressure, and electron momentum in the late-time universe, and, in combination with optical surveys, determine the neutrino mass and the effects of dark energy via tomographic measurements of the growth of structure at redshifts z ≲ 3; (3) measure the distribution of electron density and pressure around galaxy groups and clusters, and calibrate the effects of energy input from galaxy formation on the surrounding environment; (4) produce a sample of more than 30,000 galaxy clusters, and more than 100,000 extragalactic millimeter sources, including regularly sampled AGN light-curves, to study these sources and their emission physics; (5) measure the polarized emission from magnetically aligned dust grains in our Galaxy, to study the properties of dust and the role of magnetic fields in star formation; (6) constrain asteroid regoliths, search for Trans-Neptunian Objects, and either detect or eliminate large portions of the phase space in the search for Planet 9; and (7) provide a powerful new window into the transient universe on time scales of minutes to years, concurrent with observations from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory of overlapping sky. 

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