Vera C. Rubin Observatory:

Ushering a New Era of TDA

Federica Bianco

University of Delaware

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Biden School of Public Policy and Administration

Data  Science Institute

Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time

Science Collaboration Coordinator

Transients & Variable Stars SC CoChair

Vera C. Rubin Observatory:

Ushering a New Era of TDA

Federica Bianco

University of Delaware

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Biden School of Public Policy and Administration

Data  Science Institute

Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time

Science Collaboration Coordinator

Transients & Variable Stars SC CoChair

this slide deck: https://slides.com/federicabianco/rubin-iate

a new US-Chilean facility located in Chile

a joint project of NSF & DOE operates under NOIRlab

Operations start late 2023

what's in a name?

The first ground-based national US observatory named after a woman, Dr. Vera C. Rubin 

VRO

In the first 10 years of its life Rubin will conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time or LSST

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Science

Rubin Observatory LSST 

the Rubin LSST

Science Collaborations

Rubin Observatory LSST 

The Rubin Organization is almost as complex as the Universe it will explore!

Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

8 SCs - 6 continents - 2000 people - 25 countries

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Dark Energy Science Collaboration

(DESC) 

+ 

Transients and Variable

Science Collaboration

(TVS SC)

Rubin Observatory LSST 

LSST in the time-domain

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin LSST = Astro + DataScience

SDSS

Rubin

LSST

(simulated)

Rubin will see ~1000 SN every night!

A lot of them will be too faint to study with traditional means, particularly spectra. 

Lots of emphasis in new analysis techniques that rely on "Big Data"

Rubin LSST survey design

Wide Fast Deep

 8oo img over 18,000 sq deg

 pairs of observations in <1hour to track asteroid (and get transient colors)

80% of the sky time

Many surveys in one

Deep Drilling Fields

Minisurveys

Rothchild+ 2019

https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.00531

Minisurveys

Deep Drilling Fields

Targets of Opportunity

}

20%

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin LSST survey design

distributions of time gaps in 76 OpSims

Bianco et al. 2021 https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.01683

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin LSST survey design

Bianco et al. 2021 https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.01683

Rubin Focus Issue of ApJS on Rubin Survey Strategy Optimization

Rubin LSST survey design

40+ submissions

Rubin asked the community how to design the survey

Rubin LSST survey design

https://www.lsst.org/content/charge-survey-cadence-optimization-committee-scoc

Presto Color observing strategy

Presto Color observing strategy

Presto Color observing strategy

Presto Color observing strategy

• 3 observations in two filters within a night
   

• maximum separation in different filters 30 minutes
   

• optimal same-filter repeat ~<4 hours

Rubin Observatory LSST 

kickstarter program

Who can apply?:

The PI needs to be an SC member of TVS, SMWLV, SSSC

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin data and data products

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin Observatory LSST 

world public!

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin Observatory LSST 

world public

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dmmKG0ANk8

Rubin Observatory LSST 

world public

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dmmKG0ANk8

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/timeseries-variability-features

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/timeseries-variability-features

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/timeseries-variability-features

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/timeseries-variability-features

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/timeseries-variability-features

Rubin Observatory LSST 

world public

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dmmKG0ANk8

Astronomy’s Discovery Chain

Discovery Engine

10M alerts/night

Community Brokers

target observation managers

the astronomy discovery chain

Big data and time domain astrophysics

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/alert-brokers

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/alert-brokers

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/alert-brokers

 E. Bellm  https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/timeseries-variability-features

E. Bellm  

E. Bellm https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2021/content/alert-brokers

Rubin Observatory LSST 

world public

data right holders

public after 2 years

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin and MMA

Rubin Observatory LSST 

LIGO/VIRGO area of localization ~100deg square

 Ursa Minor contains 255.86 square degrees

S190425z 18% of the sky localization

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin can find the electromagnetic counterpart of Gravitational Wave and Neutrino discoveries better than any survey!

LIGO/VIRGO area of localization ~100deg square

 Ursa Minor contains 255.86 square degrees

Rubin FoV 10 deg

S190425z 18% of the sky localization

Rubin Observatory LSST 

 AT 2017gfo

optical counterpart we have identified near NGC 4993 is associated with GW170817

Evidence that mergers of NS are significant sources of r-process elements heavier than iron, including gold and platinum, which was previously attributed exclusively to supernova explosions

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin Observatory LSST 

MARGUTTI+ 2018

Rubin Observatory LSST 

MARGUTTI+ 2018

Rubin Observatory LSST 

MARGUTTI+ 2018

Rubin Observatory LSST 

June 2019 (PASP)

June 2021 (APJS)

Although currently available cadences can enable the detection of more than 300 kilonovae out to 1400 Mpc over the ten-year survey, we can expect only 3-32 kilonovae similar to GW170817 to be recognizable as fast-evolving transients.

Rubin Observatory LSST 

Rubin and LEOsats

Rubin Observatory LSST 

MMA and LEOsats

Iridium satellite number 35 lit up the predawn sky west of Boston at 5 a.m. EST on February 1, 1998,  Sky & Telescope

Satellite flares

Time domain Rubin LSST science

can be mitigated:

- orientation of satellite,

- directing flares away from observer

- knowing coordinates to associate them to alerts

if not mitigate there would be bogus alerts and images ruined by saturating flares

Hainaut & Williams 2020

https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.01992

Tyson+ 2020

https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.12417

modification to planned schedule carry long lasting consequences on the program

ToO enabled for GW need to scan ~100 sq deg footprint upon trigger - will be compromised

Time domain : the LSST observing strategy

Static Sky: correlated noise and cross talk

Cosmology probes are systematic dominated

mitigation: simulation of the non-linear crosstalk to measure the effect on precision cosmology and effectiveness of removal algorithms

(image credit: Canada-France Hawaii Telescope)

Tyson et al. 2020

https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.12417

Urban Science

Cities are networks too! And they obey scaling laws on a ridiculus number of parameters!

Bettencourt, L. M. A., Lobo, J., Helbing, D., Kühnert, C. & West, G. B. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 7301–7306 (2007)

http://vermontcomplexsystems.org/share/papershredder/bettencourt-urban-nature-2010.pdf

https://twitter.com/patrick_sharkey/status/1308417626574655488?s=20

skills I learned as an astrophysicist

• Problem solving & abstract thinking
• Dealing with the data you have (while dreaming of better data)
• Coding
• Talking about complex concepts to scientists
• Working in large collaborations

skills I DIDn't learn as an astrophysicist

• Noise is never Gaussian
• Bias dominates
• Useful overwrites interesting
• All of the domain knowledge
• Talking about complex concepts to people non scientists interested in results
• Ethics

Multi-city Urban Observatory Network

Dobler, Bianco, et al 2021, in Remote Sensing

Studying cities as complex systems through imaging data

Multi-city Urban Observatory Network

Dobler, Bianco, et al 2021, in Remote Sensing

Studying cities as complex systems through imaging data

• energy demand and consumption
• ecology of flora and fauna
• urban metabolism
• circadiem rhythms

Greg Dobler

Director of the CUSP Urban Observatory

Xiaolong Li et al. almost submitted

AILE: the first AI-based platform for the detection and study of Light Echoes

NSF Award #2108841

Detecting and studying light echoes in the era of Rubin and Artificial Intelligence

P.I. Bianco

Pessimal AI problem:

• small training data
• inaccurate labels
• imbalance classes
• diverse morphology
• low SNR

AILE: the first AI-based platform for the detection and study of Light Echoes

YOLO + attention mechanism

precision 80% at 70% recall with a training set of 19 light echo examples! 

NSF Award #2108841

Detecting and studying light echoes in the era of Rubin and Artificial Intelligence

P.I. Bianco

Xiaolong Li et al. almost submitted

From Light Echoes to Polluting Plumes

Ian Heffner, UD MSDS

​improved image

subtraction through PCA

Pessimal AI problem:

• small training data
• inaccurate labels
• imbalance classes
• diverse morphology
• low SNR
• complex BG

Urban Observatory -

Urban Plumes

Urban Observatory -

Urban Plumes

Urban Observatory -

Urban Plumes

differenced image + AI

team:   Bea Steers, Jon Kastelan, Jack Tsai, Greg Dobler

https://cuspcapstones.github.io/Detection-of-polluting-plumes-ejected-from-NYC-buildings_2018

electrical lights flicker at 120 times/second

the flicker is detectable

and the frequency is stable

(~0.02Hz http://fnetpublic.utk.edu/index.html )

observations on time scales of a fraction of a second

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

the phase of the 120Hz flicker changes with changes in the electrical load

Frequency (kHz)

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Urban Observatory -

HyperTemporal Imaging study of Grid Dynamics   

Research Inclusion: sonification of LSST lightcurves

Sid Patel, UD undergrad summer research project

Sonification: Data → Sound

New way of understanding data

• Can be complementary to visualizations

• Gives access to people who cannot
  interpret data visually

• Sounds cool! Good for public outreach

Research Inclusion: sonification of LSST lightcurves

Presented at 2021 Rubin Project Community Workshop (300 ppl) 

Started a new Rubin Working Group

Rubin Rhapsodies

Riley Clarke, UD