PSTN-055: Survey Cadence Optimization Committee's Phase 2 Recommendations

Dataset · Wed Feb 01 23:00:00 EST 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.71929/rubin/2585249· OSTI ID:2585249

Rubin's Survey Cadence Optimization Committee, ^[1]; Bauer, Franz E. ^[2]; Bianco, Federica B. ^[3]; Brough, Sarah ^[4]; Hložek, Renée ^[5]; Jones, R. Lynne ^[6]; Kasliwal, Mansi M. ^[7]; Olsen, Knut ^[8]; Peiris, Hiranya V. ^[9]; Schwamb, Megan E. ^[10]; Scolnic, Daniel ^[11]; Slater, Colin T. ^[6]; Strader, Jay ^[12]

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1. Vera C. Rubin Observatory Project Office
2. Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware; Joseph R. Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Delaware; Data Science Institute, University of Delaware
4. School of Physics, University of New South Wales
5. Dunlap Institute for Astronomy Astrophysics, University of Toronto
6. Dept. of Astronomy, University of Washington
7. Astonomy Department, California Institute of Technology
8. NSF NOIRLab
9. Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University; Institute of Astronomy and Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge
10. Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast
11. Department of Physics, Duke University
12. Center for Data Intensive and Time Domain Astronomy, Michigan State University

This document describes the recommendations formulated by the Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) of Vera C. Rubin Observatory for the observing strategy of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). These "Phase 2" recommendations follow the initial "Phase 1" recommendations released in December 2021 as PSTN-053, and convey the current recommendations for the initial implementation of the LSST. These recommendations are based on the SCOC analysis of LSST simulations generated according to PSTN-053 and the feedback received from the scientific community on those simulations. These recommendations should be considered as the current guidance for implementing the LSST observing survey at the start of the survey, a strategy to be reviewed regularly over the survey lifetime, and are accompanied by a simulation, baseline_v3.0, which represents a specific implementation of these recommendations. While these recommendations dramatically narrow the possible LSST observing parameter choices, we emphasize that at this stage they do not yet represent a final or complete set of recommendations for the survey strategy, and several details are still to be refined. Furthermore, the strategy should be considered "living" and subject to evolution throughout the survey. The SCOC continues to engage with the community to finalize its recommendations. At the time of the release of this document, the final phases of construction of Rubin Observatory are ongoing with an expected first light in mid-2024. We expect the SCOC recommendations to be revised as needed, as knowledge of the system as built and the outcome of commissioning and Science Verification mature. This document describes the Phase 2 SCOC recommendations —highlighting elements that can be considered final and elements that remain to be finalized—, the process through which the SCOC has converged on these recommendations, and the working plan for the SCOC starting in January 2023 through the start of the survey to finalize the initial implementation of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

• Research Organization: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
• Sponsoring Organization: U.S. National Science Foundation; U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 2585249
• Report Number(s): Vera C. Rubin Observatory Project Science Technical Note PSTN-055
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS