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
Schwope A
(2022)
Identification of SRGt 062340.2-265751 as a bright, strongly variable, novalike cataclysmic variable
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rastinejad J
(2022)
A Systematic Exploration of Kilonova Candidates from Neutron Star Mergers during the Third Gravitational-wave Observing Run
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aghakhanloo M
(2022)
Repeating periodic eruptions of the supernova impostor SN 2000ch
Aghakhanloo M
(2022)
Recurring outbursts of the supernova impostor AT 2016blu in NGC 4559
Davis K
(2023)
SN 2022ann: a Type Icn supernova from a dwarf galaxy that reveals helium in its circumstellar environment
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Nagy Z
(2023)
The Gaia alerted fading of the FUor-type star Gaia21elv
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kato T
(2023)
On the orbital period of the dwarf nova CW Mon
Teja R
(2023)
SN 2018gj: A Short Plateau Type II Supernova with Persistent Blueshifted Ha Emission
in The Astrophysical Journal
Srivastav S
(2023)
The Luminous Type Ia Supernova 2022ilv and Its Early Excess Emission
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Kato T
(2023)
Long-lasting high state of the high-field polar AR UMa
Lykou F
(2023)
A New Study on a Type Iax Stellar Remnant and its Probable Association with SN 1181
in The Astrophysical Journal
Kato T
(2023)
The 2022 active state of the AM CVn star NSV 1440
Kato T
(2023)
Genuine standstill in the AM CVn star CR Boo
Wang Q
(2023)
Revealing the Progenitor of SN 2021zby through Analysis of the TESS Shock-cooling Light Curve
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Ben-Ami T
(2023)
The Type Ibn Supernova 2019kbj: Indications for Diversity in Type Ibn Supernova Progenitors
in The Astrophysical Journal
Poidevin F
(2023)
Optical polarization and spectral properties of the hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae SN 2021bnw and SN 2021fpl
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
Homan D
(2023)
Discovery of the luminous X-ray ignition eRASSt J234402.9-352640 I. Tidal disruption event or a rapid increase in accretion in an active galactic nucleus?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kool E
(2023)
A radio-detected type Ia supernova with helium-rich circumstellar material
in Nature
Kato T
(2023)
Double outbursts in V544 Her and ASASSN-19yt
Kato T
(2023)
Low state in the post-nova V1315 Aql
Ho AYQ
(2023)
Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities.
in Nature
Acharyya A
(2023)
Multiwavelength Observations of the Blazar PKS 0735+178 in Spatial and Temporal Coincidence with an Astrophysical Neutrino Candidate IceCube-211208A
in The Astrophysical Journal
Yao Y
(2023)
Tidal Disruption Event Demographics with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Volumetric Rates, Luminosity Function, and Implications for the Local Black Hole Mass Function
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
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/ |