TY - UNPB
T1 - Lasair: The Transient Alert Broker for LSST:UK
AU - Smith, K. W.
AU - Young, D. R.
AU - Ibsen Osorio, Amanda
AU - Smartt, S. J.
AU - Lawrence, Andrew
AU - Morris, David
AU - Voutsinas, Stelios
AU - Nicholl, Matt
PY - 2019/1/31
Y1 - 2019/1/31
N2 - Current and next-generation time-domain surveys will produce more data than ever before. The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF; Kulkarni 2018; Bellm et al. 2019) generates up to ~106 alerts3 (individual photometric data points of time-variable sources) per night (Patterson et al. 2019), while the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST; LSST Science Collaboration et al. 2009) is expected to produce up to ~107 alerts per night. However there are significant computational challenges in processing these data into a digestible format, in near real-time, in order to identify interesting transients and trigger follow-up such as spectroscopy and observations in other wavelength regimes. To this end, we present Lasair,4 the transient alerts broker for the LSST:UK collaboration. In preparation for LSST's data stream, Lasair ingests the ZTF public alert stream into a relational database, assimilates the alerts into objects, and produces lightcurves and reliable cross-matches to star and galaxy catalogs. Lasair can be viewed and queried through a web browser5 and we provide simple example streams of interesting objects, as well as access to a full SQL search engine. Registration to the website is optional, free, and open to all.
AB - Current and next-generation time-domain surveys will produce more data than ever before. The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF; Kulkarni 2018; Bellm et al. 2019) generates up to ~106 alerts3 (individual photometric data points of time-variable sources) per night (Patterson et al. 2019), while the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST; LSST Science Collaboration et al. 2009) is expected to produce up to ~107 alerts per night. However there are significant computational challenges in processing these data into a digestible format, in near real-time, in order to identify interesting transients and trigger follow-up such as spectroscopy and observations in other wavelength regimes. To this end, we present Lasair,4 the transient alerts broker for the LSST:UK collaboration. In preparation for LSST's data stream, Lasair ingests the ZTF public alert stream into a relational database, assimilates the alerts into objects, and produces lightcurves and reliable cross-matches to star and galaxy catalogs. Lasair can be viewed and queried through a web browser5 and we provide simple example streams of interesting objects, as well as access to a full SQL search engine. Registration to the website is optional, free, and open to all.
U2 - 10.3847/2515-5172/ab020f
DO - 10.3847/2515-5172/ab020f
M3 - Discussion paper
VL - 3
T3 - Research Notes of the AAS
BT - Lasair: The Transient Alert Broker for LSST:UK
ER -