The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope at UW
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will produce the largest digital map of the sky. From Cerro Pachon in Chile it will image half of the sky every three nights; generating 30 TB of images per night and detecting 1010 stars and galaxies. Because of its large etendue it will return to the same part of the sky over a thousand times during its 10 year survey lifespan which will enable the detection of moving and transient sources (from potentially Earth crossing asteroids to high redshift SNe). A large part of survey science and design at UW centers around support of the LSST project. These pages provide information on the SSGs work related to the LSST. You will find links to the various endproducts of this work in the form of catalogs, software, and tools. If you have questions related to our LSST efforts or are interested in working with us at UW, please contact Andrew Connolly.
Simulations of LSST - eLSST
Although LSST is many years away from first light, we are already developing simulations of what LSST may see and how it may operate. The section "eLSST" will give you some insight into these simulations from the Image Simulations (aka "imsim") and Operations Simulation ("opsim") to the Calibration Simulation ("calsim") that simulate the LSST data flow. Here you will also information on filter throughputs, the catalogs being developed for imsim and calsim, and tools for testing opsim outputs for cadence or lightcurve sensitivity. Basically, this is home to some of the tools we're using to evaluate how LSST will perform scientifically.
Data Management and the LSST Pipelines
UW is responsible for generating the software for reducing and analyzing the 30TB of data that the LSST will generate every night. The Data Management (DM) Team at UW has primary responsibility for development of the software for the LSST Nightly Image Processing Pipelines. Our focus thus far has been on instrument signature removal, difference imaging, PSF determination, stacking/coaddition of template images, and convolution. For more information on DM and LSST Pipeline work at UW, see our Data Management pages.
