UK Involvement in LSST: Phase B (QUB component)
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Mathematics and Physics
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Planned Impact
Support for UK involvement in LSST, through funding the LSST:UK Science Centre (LUSC), can generate societal and economic impact under the following five headings:
1. Enhancing the research capacity, knowledge and skills of enterprises working on "Big Data" issues being incubated within the Higgs Centre for Innovation.
The Phase B LUSC Data Access Centre workpackage is co-located on the Royal Observatory Edinburgh campus with the Higgs Centre for Innovation, which is being funded to improve interaction between academia and industry in Space and Big Data, and to enhance economic impact in those two domains. We shall exploit that co-location to ensure that Big Data innovations within the LSST project in the US filter through to UK SMEs and that the challenging requirements of LSST inspire the development of novel Big Data techniques and technologies within the UK, as has been the case in the US.
2. Increasing public engagement with research through Citizen Science initiatives.
The LSST:UK Consortium will develop a Citizen Science platform based on the pioneering Zooniverse project, which currently has more than one million users doing real science online. Computational advances between now and the start of LSST operations will enable Citizen Science activities that greatly exceed what is currently possible, and perhaps most exciting is the prospect of involving Citizen Scientists in the classification of the million or more transient alerts that LSST will generate per night, placing the public at the heart of LSST's pioneering exploration of time-domain astronomy.
3. Enhancing cultural enrichment and quality of life through education & outreach activities.
The LSST:UK Consortium institutions have a wealth of experience in education and public outreach (EPO) activities, from running Open Days and exhibitions to CPD courses for school teachers to Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). During Phase B we will develop an EPO programme, in conjunction with the very active LSST EPO team in the US.
4. Enhancing the research capacity, knowledge and skills of organisations through the employment of researchers with high-level expertise derived from working on LSST.
Over the 18-year lifetime of the LUSC programme, many students (e.g. from the STFC data-intensive science CDTs) and postdocs who have developed high-level expertise from working on LSST will pass from astronomy to the commercial sector, taking their valuable knowledge and skills with them. Particularly valuable will be the computational and statistical skills that will be readily applicable to the Big Data challenges prevalent in the public and private sector, and the expertise in thick CCDs developed through UK involvement in the LSST camera team.
5. Wealth creation, through the placing of construction contracts with UK companies.
The detector characterisation work started during LUSC Phase A, and proposed for continuation during Phase B, has included liaison with a UK company that has now signed a large contract to supply roughly half of the LSST detectors.
1. Enhancing the research capacity, knowledge and skills of enterprises working on "Big Data" issues being incubated within the Higgs Centre for Innovation.
The Phase B LUSC Data Access Centre workpackage is co-located on the Royal Observatory Edinburgh campus with the Higgs Centre for Innovation, which is being funded to improve interaction between academia and industry in Space and Big Data, and to enhance economic impact in those two domains. We shall exploit that co-location to ensure that Big Data innovations within the LSST project in the US filter through to UK SMEs and that the challenging requirements of LSST inspire the development of novel Big Data techniques and technologies within the UK, as has been the case in the US.
2. Increasing public engagement with research through Citizen Science initiatives.
The LSST:UK Consortium will develop a Citizen Science platform based on the pioneering Zooniverse project, which currently has more than one million users doing real science online. Computational advances between now and the start of LSST operations will enable Citizen Science activities that greatly exceed what is currently possible, and perhaps most exciting is the prospect of involving Citizen Scientists in the classification of the million or more transient alerts that LSST will generate per night, placing the public at the heart of LSST's pioneering exploration of time-domain astronomy.
3. Enhancing cultural enrichment and quality of life through education & outreach activities.
The LSST:UK Consortium institutions have a wealth of experience in education and public outreach (EPO) activities, from running Open Days and exhibitions to CPD courses for school teachers to Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). During Phase B we will develop an EPO programme, in conjunction with the very active LSST EPO team in the US.
4. Enhancing the research capacity, knowledge and skills of organisations through the employment of researchers with high-level expertise derived from working on LSST.
Over the 18-year lifetime of the LUSC programme, many students (e.g. from the STFC data-intensive science CDTs) and postdocs who have developed high-level expertise from working on LSST will pass from astronomy to the commercial sector, taking their valuable knowledge and skills with them. Particularly valuable will be the computational and statistical skills that will be readily applicable to the Big Data challenges prevalent in the public and private sector, and the expertise in thick CCDs developed through UK involvement in the LSST camera team.
5. Wealth creation, through the placing of construction contracts with UK companies.
The detector characterisation work started during LUSC Phase A, and proposed for continuation during Phase B, has included liaison with a UK company that has now signed a large contract to supply roughly half of the LSST detectors.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Stephen Smartt (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ackley K
(2020)
Observational constraints on the optical and near-infrared emission from the neutron star-black hole binary merger candidate S190814bv
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Aghakhanloo M
(2023)
Repeating periodic eruptions of the supernova impostor SN 2000ch
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Aghakhanloo M
(2023)
Recurring outbursts of the supernova impostor AT 2016blu in NGC 4559
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Aleo P
(2023)
The Young Supernova Experiment Data Release 1 (YSE DR1): Light Curves and Photometric Classification of 1975 Supernovae
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Betzler A
(2023)
A photometric study of centaurs 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann and (2060) Chiron
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cai Y
(2021)
Intermediate-luminosity red transients: Spectrophotometric properties and connection to electron-capture supernova explosions
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gutiérrez C
(2022)
SN 2020wnt: a slow-evolving carbon-rich superluminous supernova with no O ii lines and a bumpy light curve
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hernández-García L
(2023)
Multiwavelength monitoring of the nucleus in PBC J2333.9-2343: the giant radio galaxy with a blazar-like core
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jones D
(2021)
The Young Supernova Experiment: Survey Goals, Overview, and Operations
in The Astrophysical Journal
Kato T
(2021)
New candidates for AM Canum Venaticorum stars among ASAS-SN transients
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
McBrien O
(2021)
PS15cey and PS17cke: prospective candidates from the Pan-STARRS Search for kilonovae
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Onori F
(2022)
The nuclear transient AT 2017gge: a tidal disruption event in a dusty and gas-rich environment and the awakening of a dormant SMBH
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Parrag E
(2021)
SN 2019hcc: a Type II supernova displaying early O ii lines
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pastorello A
(2021)
Forbidden hugs in pandemic times I. Luminous red nova AT 2019zhd, a new merger in M 31
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pastorello A
(2021)
Forbidden hugs in pandemic times II. The luminous red nova variety: AT 2020hat and AT 2020kog
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Poidevin F
(2022)
Post maximum light and late time optical imaging polarimetry of type I superluminous supernova 2020znr
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith K
(2020)
Design and Operation of the ATLAS Transient Science Server
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Srivastav S
(2020)
The Lowest of the Low: Discovery of SN 2019gsc and the Nature of Faint Iax Supernovae
in The Astrophysical Journal
Wang Q
(2023)
Revealing the Progenitor of SN 2021zby through Analysis of the TESS Shock-cooling Light Curve
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Wang Q
(2021)
SN 2018agk: A Prototypical Type Ia Supernova with a Smooth Power-law Rise in Kepler (K2)
in The Astrophysical Journal
Title | Lasair: The Transient Alert Broker for LSST:UK |
Description | Lasair provides a user-friendly interface to access public ZTF transient alerts. The alerts are transmitted by ZTF typically within 13 minutes of the exposure, in Avro/Kafka format. They are ingested into the Lasair database (on hardware in Edinburgh) within 20 minutes. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Lasair is 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. |
URL | https://lasair.roe.ac.uk/ |