Welcome to AURA Observatory in Chile

Welcome to AURA Observatory in Chile

AURA Observatory in Chile Three U.S. National Facilities and A platform for International Cooperation R. Chris Smith, Head of Mission, AURA-O AFOSR Nov2017 2

AURA Basics Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy A consortium of universities established in 1957 to manage public observatories Membership currently includes 40 U.S. institutions and 5 international institutions (including 2 Chilean) Original goal was to provide observing facilities in both hemispheres (and later, in space!) AFOSR Nov2017 3

HST JWST WFIRST HDST NSO NOAO LSST Gemini AFOSR Nov2017 4

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1960: Site Selection for First International Observatory in Chile AFOSR Nov2017 8

Nov.1962: Cerro Tololo selected 57km 10km

CONTEXT: Astronomy Operations in Chile AURA-O CTIO (4m + smaller telescopes) SOAR (4.2-m) Gemini (8m) European Southern Observatory La Silla (3.6m + 3.5m + 2.2m + ) Paranal (4 x 8m VLT + VISTA 4m + VST 2.4m ) Carnegie Observatories Las Campanas Observatory (2.5m + 1m + ) Magellan (2 x 6.5m) ALMA (= ESO + AUI + Japan) ~62 12m radio telescopes+ NEXT GENERATION LSST (8.4m) AURA/NSF, Cerro Pachon GMT (25m) GMTO, Las Campanas E-ELT (39m) ESO, Armazones AFOSR Nov2017 10

Why Chile? High sites: Andes Stable air: smooth flow from Pacific, producing sharp images Clear skies: dry desert, few cloudy nights Dark skies (need to keep them that way!) Dark in Optical, Dark in Radio as well Solid infrastructure & commitment AFOSR Nov2017 11

Chile: World Capital of Astronomy By late-2020s, Chile will host ~70% of astronomical collecting area AFOSR Nov2017 12

AURA-O: One site, Two mountaintops >30 telescopes & counting Cerro Pachon 8,907 ft Cerro Tololo 7,241 ft

Cerro Tololo

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Southern branch of the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) With CTIO in Chile and Kitt Peak in Arizona, since ~1965 we have provided access to the whole sky to astronomers from all over the world with an open skies policy 15 AFOSR Nov2017

Cerro Pachón

Gemini-South 8m Twin to Gemini North In Hawaii, TwoTelescopes, One Observatory Probing the most distant objects in the universe Probing nearby stars for planets with specialized instruments One of the most advanced laser AO systems in astronomy today Most observing in QUEUE mode AFOSR Nov2017 17

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SOAR 4.1m SOuthern Astrophysical Research telescope Consortium with Brazil, UNC, MSU, & NOAO Large Instrument Payload Up to 9 active instruments Rapid switching between instruments Mostly Remote Observing AFOSR Nov2017 19

Additional Astronomical Projects On the AURA-O Site SMARTS (1.5m, 1.3m, 0.9m, 1.0m) GONG (U.S. National Solar Observatory facility) PROMPT 8x0.4m (Univ. North Carolina + international collaboration specifically including Thailand, Germany) Univ. of Michigan Curtis Schmidt (had NASA funding, orbital space debris study) WHAM: Wisconsin H-alpha Imager SARA: Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy, small universities, remote observing AFOSR Nov2017 20

Newer Projects Univ. of Chile: Robotic telescope LCOGTN/Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (3x1.0m plus 2x0.4m) KMTnet/KASI: Korean Astronomy & Space Sciences Institute (1.6m) mearth (8x0.4m), Harvard U. project looking for planets T80S (0.8m), Brazilian survey of southern sky AFOSR Nov2017 21

Other Activities Andes Lidar Observatory (NSF funding, study of atmospheric turbulence) SSI Airglow (former NSF funding, study of atmospheric airglow) DGAC (Chilean FAA) Ozone monitoring (part of Swiss collaboration) Weather Station IRIS/UChile Seismological station, part of world-wide network of stations (NSF funding) AFOSR Nov2017 22

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Linking Astronomy to Frontiers in Big Data

BIG DATA TODAY: The Dark Energy Camera 62 2048 x 4096 pixel CCDs 570 Megapixel camera The largest focal plane for astronomy in S. Hemisphere Optical Lenses AFOSR Nov2017 25

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A modest data challenge Each image 1GB; up to 1TB of raw data/night Data must be moved from Chile to Tucson & NCSA before next night begins (<18 hours), preferably in real time Data should be processed within <24 hours to inform next night s observing: using NCSA resources TOTAL Dataset over 5 years ~10 PB w/ public access Raw Images + Processed images + Catalogs AFOSR Nov2017 28

The next step Massively Parallel Astrophysics Survey the entire sky every 3-4 nights, to simultaneously detect and study: Dark Matter via Weak gravitational lensing Dark Energy via thousands of SNe per year Potentially hazardous near earth asteroids Tracers of the formation of the solar system Fireworks in the heavens GRBs, quasars Periodic and transient phenomena... the UNKNOWN AFOSR Nov2017 29

Next Step: LSST Creating a Digital Universe LSST is designed to image the whole sky every few nights for 10 years, giving us a movie-like window into our dynamic Universe. AFOSR Nov2017 8.4 M Telescope 3.5 Degree Field Of View Telescope Located in Chile on Cerro Pachón 3.2 Billion Pixel Camera ~40 Second Cadence Two 15 second exposures Full sky coverage every 3-4 nights Advanced Data Management Systems Public Data Alerts of new events Catalogs of object Archives of images 30

Why is the LSST so unique? Primary Mirror Diameter Field of View 0.2 degrees Gemini South Telescope 8 m 3.5 degrees (Full moon is 0.5 degrees) LSST 8.4 m AFOSR Nov2017 31

Telescope and Site 30 m diameter dome 1.2 m diameter atmospheric telescope Control room and heat producing equipment (lower level) 1,380 m 2 service and maintenance facility Base Facility 350 ton telescope Project includes the facilities, and hardware to collect the light, control the survey, calibrate conditions, and support all LSST summit and base operations. AFOSR Nov2017 33

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Camera 3.2 Gigapixel science array 63 cm diameter Wavefront and guide sensors 2 second readout 5 filters in camera Electronics Utility Trunk houses support electronics and utilities Cryostat contains focal plane & its electronics 1.65 m (5-5 ) Filter L3 Lens Focal plane L1 Lens L2 Lens AFOSR Nov2017 35

LSST: A Case Study for Petascale Data Management Each image roughly 12GB Cadence: 1 image every ~17s Total = ~30-45 TB per night! ALL must be transferred to US @NCSA archive center: within image timescale (<5s), >>10 Gbps REAL TIME reduction, analysis, & alerts Send out alerts of transient sources within 60s ~10 million events per night every night for 10 years Provide automatic data quality evaluation, alert to problems Change survey observing strategy on the fly based on conditions, last field visited, etc. AFOSR Nov2017 36

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Construction NOW First light in 2020 Operations in 2022 DOE/NSF Joint Interface and Management Review Tucson, Arizona May 30-June 1, 2012

Guillermo Cabrera-Vives, Pablo Estévez, Francisco Förster, Matthew Graham, Pablo Huijse, Ashish Mahabal, Juan-Carlos Maureira, Karim Pichara, Giuliano Pignata, Pavlos Protopapas, Andrea Rodríguez, Jaime San-Martín, Chris Smith, Eduardo Vera, Rodrigo Carrasco, Jorge Martínez, Ignacio Reyes 4 0

ALeRCE: HiTS, ZTF, LSST HiTS ZTF LSST x10 x10 2013-2015 (~3 weeks) 0.2 TB per night ~20 million objects ~100 million measurements ~0.1 million alerts per night 2018-2020 1.4 TB per night ~1 billion objects ~1 trillion measurements ~1 million alerts per night 2022-2032 15 TB per night ~37 billion objects ~7 trillion measurements ~10 million alerts per night AFOSR Nov2017 2 41

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2017-2021 + Bioinformatics Training the next generation of scientists (in fields of astronomy, mathematics, computer science, and others) in the tools and techniques of massive data International program: funding for students from Chile and the U.S. Target students: senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students Leaders: Guillermo Cabrera, Chris Miller, Chris Smith, Eduardo Vera AFOSR Nov2017 http://www.aura-o.aura-astronomy.org/winter_school/ 43

LSST Outreach Data will be used in classrooms, science museums, and online Classroom Emphasis on: Data-enabled research experiences Citizen Science College classes Collaboration through Social Networking AFOSR Nov2017 44

Site: Octubre 2017

AURA Observatory in Chile: A platform for current and future U.S. and International astronomical facilities in Chile AFOSR Nov2017 46