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K.H. Cook (LLNL, NOAO), F. Delgado, M. Miller, A. Saha (NOAO), R. Allsman (LSST Corp), P. Pinto (U. Arizona), P.A. Gee (UC Davis)
We have developed an operations simulator for LSST and used it to explore design and operations parameter space for this large etendue telescope and its ten year survey mission. The design is modular, with separate science programs coded in separate modules. There is a sophisticated telescope module with all motions parametrized for ease of testing different telescope capabilities, e.g. effect of acceleration capabilities of various motors on science output. Sky brightness is calculated as a function of moon phase and separation. A sophisticated exposure time calculator has been developed for LSST which is being incorporated into the simulator to allow specification of S/N requirements. All important parameters for the telescope, the site and the science programs are easily accessible in configuration files. Seeing and cloud data from the three candidate LSST sites are used for our simulations.
The simulator has two broad categories of science proposals: sky coverage and transient events. Sky coverage proposals base their observing priorities on a required number of observations for each field in a particular filter with specified conditions (maximum seeing, sky brightness, etc) and one is used for a weak lensing investigation. Transient proposals are highly configurable. A transient proposal can require sequential, multiple exposures in various filters with a specified sequence of filters, and require a particular cadence for multiple revisits to complete an observation sequence. Each science proposal ranks potential observations based upon the internal logic of that proposal.
We present the results of a variety of mixed science program observing simulations, showing how varied programs can be carried out simultaneously, with many observations serving multiple science goals. The simulator has shown that LSST can carry out its multiple missions under a variety of conditions.
KHC's work was performed under the auspices of the US DOE, NNSA by the Univ. of California, LLNL under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.