Introduction
Those with ideas for future newsletter items should contact the LSST:UK Project Managers (George Beckett and Terry Sloanlusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk), while everyone is encouraged to subscribe to the Rubin Observatory Digest for more general news from the US observatory team.
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The Rubin Data Products, Abridged
Annotations: a new capability for Lasair
The Lasair transient broker is not built for the Lasair team to extract science from LSST alerts, but rather as a platform for a wide community of astronomers to extract science. Lasair is not built around an existing classification system, but rather invites those who have such algorithms to collaborate with Lasair to publish and amplify in near-real-time. Already astronomers can use Lasair to build a custom SQL query, then convert it to a filter on the alert stream, and publish the resulting stream so that others can use the results. An example might be "Alerts associated with a galaxy within 200 Mpc".
The new capability of the Lasair transient broker allows a classification engine to create “annotations” that go into the Lasair database. These can in turn be part of queries, filters, and streams. In particular, if an classification engine decides that an alert is exciting, its conclusion can be streamed out to interested parties within minutes of the original alert from LSST.
Some annotators take a Lasair stream and filter it further, based on the lightcurve. The code doesn't need to run in the real-time pipeline, rather it can run anywhere on the internet. This outsourcing of classification is being done by several Lasair collaborators now: the FastFinder kilonova classifier, Zooniverse citizen science, and a new collaboration with TiDES/4MOST. Other annotators push an external stream into Lasair; we are in the process of "re-publishing" the classifications made by other LSST alert brokers Fink and Alerce. If you are interested in building a Lasair annotator, please write to lasair-help@lists.roe.ac.uk, and we will get you started.
LSST:UK leadership positions
Here’s the latest list of significant leadership positions held by members of the LSST:UK consortium in the project and international Science Collaborations. This is the list submitted to the STFC in the most recent Project Assurance Report (i.e. the PAR). If you are aware of any corrections or additions please contact the LSST:UK Project Managers (George Beckett and Terry Sloan: lusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk).
D. Alonso: co-convenor of the DESC External Synergies Working Group, member of the LSST DESC Membership Committee, DESC Liaison with Simons Observatory.
C. Alves: member of the LSST DESC Collaboration Council.
M. Banerji: co-chair of the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration, member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Working Group and a member of the Rubin Contribution Evaluation Committee.
M. Bannister: LSST Solar System Science Collaboration Outer Solar System Working Group lead, member of the of the Rubin Contribution Evaluation Committee
M.G.Beckett: member of the LSST DESC High-performance computing resources committee;
R. Bowler: co-chair of the SED fitting and Photometric Redshifts WG in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration.
P. Bull: member of DESC Publication Board.
T. Collett: member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Working Group.
P. Hatfield: co-chair of the Galaxy Environment WG in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration.
C. Heymans: UK representative on DESC Operations Committee, member of DESC Advisory Board, member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Working Group.
S. Kaviraj: co-chair of the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration; co-chair of the Low Surface Brightness Coordination Group (This is the first community driven Community Group).
B Leistedt: co-convenor of the Large Scale Structure (LSS) Working Group; co-chair of the LSST DESC Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
D. Leonard: DESC Core Cosmology Library topical team lead, member of the LSST DESC Publication Board and Collaboration Council.
C. Lintott: leads the LSST EPO development of Zooniverse as a citizen science platform.
J. Mullaney: Chair of the Active Galactic Nuclei WG in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration.
H. Peiris: member of the Rubin Observatory Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC).
M. Schwamb: co-chair of Solar System Science Collaboration, member of the Rubin Observatory Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC).
S. Smartt: member of the LSST Science Advisory Committee.
G. Smith: co-chair of the LSST Strong Lensing Science Collaboration (SLSC) and Commissioning Liaison for the LSST SLSC.
M. Sullivan: co-convener of the DESC Time Domain Working Group, member of DESC Speakers Bureau Policy Committee, DESC Liaison with 4MOST/TiDES.
A. Verma: chair of the Strong Lensing Working Group in the Galaxies Science Collaboration, member of the Rubin Observatory LSST Contribution Evaluation Committee, chair of the Software Sub-committee and International Program Coordinator in the Rubin Director’s Office (from Jan 2021).
A. Watkins: co-chair of the low-surface-brightness working group within the LSST Galaxies Science collaboration, co-lead of the LSST LSB challenge 1: "How do LSST algorithms do at detecting LSB sources; co-chair of the Low Surface Brightness Coordination Group.
C. Woolford: Member of the LSST DESC International Resources Committee.
J. Zuntz: DESC Deputy computing and simulations coordinator.
Recent LSST:UK outputs
LSST:UK has recently produced the following technical reports.
Title | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
D3.7.3 Software to Output Metrics That Keep Track of Improvements to the Pipeline Sky Subtraction | Aaron Watkins, Chris Collins, Sugata Kavira | Low surface brightness science contains much of the potential discovery space for LSST, in galaxies, solar system, and Milky Way research. Unfortunately, the authors (i.e. LSST:UK work package WP3.7) have previously demonstrated that the current LSST data reduction pipeline’s sky subtraction routine over-subtracts flux in the outskirts of extended objects, making low surface brightness science with LSST a potentially very difficult enterprise. Changes to the pipeline are thus required to ensure that LSST’s scope is not limited in this way. As WP3.7 develop an alternative sky-subtraction routine to resolve this issue, it is necessary to track improvements using quantitative metrics. This in turn requires software that can measure and output these metrics alongside regular runs of the pipeline. This report details the current state of such software, which WP3.7 are now making available to the LSST:UK community. The authors also describe future plans for the software, to address its current slow speed and to more easily integrate some version of it into the LSST pipeline itself for use by the data management team. |
Forthcoming meetings of interest
Several meetings of potential interest have been scheduled for the coming months.
Note that the current list of forthcoming meeting is always available on the Relevant Meetings page. You may also wish to check information held on the LSST organisation website LSST-organised events and the LSST Corporation website
Announcements
If you have significant announcements that are directly relevant to LSST:UK and would like to share the announcement in a future newsletter, please contact the LSST:UK project managers.