skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Tuning the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Observing Strategy for Solar System Science
Abstract The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to start the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) in early to mid-2025. This multiband wide-field synoptic survey will transform our view of the solar system, with the discovery and monitoring of over five million small bodies. The final survey strategy chosen for LSST has direct implications on the discoverability and characterization of solar system minor planets and passing interstellar objects. Creating an inventory of the solar system is one of the four main LSST science drivers. The LSST observing cadence is a complex optimization problem that must balance the priorities and needs of all the key LSST science areas. To design the best LSST survey strategy, a series of operation simulations using the Rubin Observatory scheduler have been generated to explore the various options for tuning observing parameters and prioritizations. We explore the impact of the various simulated LSST observing strategies on studying the solar system’s small body reservoirs. We examine what are the best observing scenarios and review what are the important considerations for maximizing LSST solar system science. In general, most of the LSST cadence simulations produce ±5% or less variations in our chosen key metrics, but a subset of the simulations significantly hinder science returns with much larger losses in the discovery and light-curve metrics.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1824869 1934752
PAR ID:
10444233
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Volume:
266
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0067-0049
Page Range / eLocation ID:
22
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series)
    Abstract Galactic science encompasses a wide range of subjects in the study of the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, from young stellar objects to X-ray binaries. Mapping these populations, and exploring transient phenomena within them, are among the primary science goals of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time. While early versions of the survey strategy dedicated relatively few visits to the Galactic Plane region, more recent strategies under consideration envision a higher cadence within selected regions of high scientific interest. The range of galactic science presents a challenge in evaluating which strategies deliver the highest scientific returns. Here we present metrics designed to evaluate Rubin survey strategy simulations, based on the cadence of observations they deliver within regions of interest to different topics in galactic science, using variability categories defined by timescale. We also compare the fractions of exposures obtained in each filter with those recommended for the different science goals. We find that the baseline _ v2.x simulations deliver observations of the high-priority regions at sufficiently high cadence to reliably detect variability on timescales >10 days or more. Follow-up observations may be necessary to properly characterize variability, especially transients, on shorter timescales. Combining the regions of interest for all the science cases considered, we identify those areas of the Galactic Plane and Magellanic Clouds of highest priority. We recommend that these refined survey footprints be used in future simulations to explore rolling cadence scenarios, and to optimize the sequence of observations in different bandpasses. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series)
    Abstract Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a ground-based astronomical facility under construction, a joint project of the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, designed to conduct a multipurpose 10 yr optical survey of the Southern Hemisphere sky: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Significant flexibility in survey strategy remains within the constraints imposed by the core science goals of probing dark energy and dark matter, cataloging the solar system, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. The survey’s massive data throughput will be transformational for many other astrophysics domains and Rubin’s data access policy sets the stage for a huge community of potential users. To ensure that the survey science potential is maximized while serving as broad a community as possible, Rubin Observatory has involved the scientific community at large in the process of setting and refining the details of the observing strategy. The motivation, history, and decision-making process of this strategy optimization are detailed in this paper, giving context to the science-driven proposals and recommendations for the survey strategy included in this Focus Issue. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series)
    Abstract The Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time will discover thousands of microlensing events across the Milky Way, allowing for the study of populations of exoplanets, stars, and compact objects. We evaluate numerous survey strategies simulated in the Rubin Operation Simulations to assess the discovery and characterization efficiencies of microlensing events. We have implemented three metrics in the Rubin Metric Analysis Framework: a discovery metric and two characterization metrics, where one estimates how well the light curve is covered and the other quantifies how precisely event parameters can be determined. We also assess the characterizability of microlensing parallax, critical for detection of free-floating black hole lenses. We find that, given Rubin’s baseline cadence, the discovery and characterization efficiency will be higher for longer-duration and larger-parallax events. Microlensing discovery efficiency is dominated by the observing footprint, where more time spent looking at regions of high stellar density, including the Galactic bulge, Galactic plane, and Magellanic Clouds, leads to higher discovery and characterization rates. However, if the observations are stretched over too wide an area, including low-priority areas of the Galactic plane with fewer stars and higher extinction, event characterization suffers by >10%. This could impact exoplanet, binary star, and compact object events alike. We find that some rolling strategies (where Rubin focuses on a fraction of the sky in alternating years) in the Galactic bulge can lead to a 15%–20% decrease in microlensing parallax characterization, so rolling strategies should be chosen carefully to minimize losses. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, 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. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, 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. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email