LSST SCIENCE COLLABORATION

The deadline for the first round of proposals (Aug 29, 2008) to join the LSST science collaborations is now over.
We will be making such calls again in the near future, within a year (and possibly considerably sooner) of the last deadline.
The contents below show the information and proposal format for the last call. Future calls will be along the same lines,
but updated to incorporate changes and improvements to the process, as well asto any evolution of scientific and programmatic perspectives.
Meanwhile, this page informs you of what to expect when you apply in the next proposal round.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a wide-field imaging telescope with an effective aperture of 6.5 meters (primary mirror 8.4 meters in diameter), to be placed at Cerro Pachon in the Chilean Andes. It is scheduled for first light in late 2014, and after a commissioning period, it will carry out a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 square degrees in six broad bands (ugrizy) from 3200 Angstroms to 1.05 microns. LSST will re-visit points in the sky over a thousand times when totaled over all pass-bands during the survey period. Individual epochs will reach r=24.5, with combined depth reaching to r=27.5 for point sources. The data will not be proprietary, and will be made freely available. An active consortium of research institutions and universities has been working together for the last five years and more to make this project a reality.

While the broad science drivers for the project (ranging from the search for near-Earth asteroids to the characterization of dark energy from large-scale structure, weak lensing, and supernovae) have been widely discussed (see, e.g., http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0805.2366), it is time for a more formal and detailed investigation of the science questions that LSST will address. With this in mind, the project has defined a series of ten Science Collaborations, whose initial membership has been largely drawn from the LSST member institutions. This is a call for applications from the US physics and astronomy communities to join these collaborations, and take part now in the shaping of the broad science goals of LSST by contributing new expertise, ideas, and analysis techniques.

The real payoff for the Collaborations is to be in an optimal position to use the LSST data as it begins to flow. Moreover, the Collaborations will be able to influence the LSST in decisions on cadence and software as described above. Members of the Science Collaborations will be welcome to attend relevant LSST technical meetings.

It should be emphasized that because the LSST images taken during the operations phase will be made public immediately to the US scientific community, there is no requirement that an individual be a member of a Science Collaboration in order to use these data. However, the science collaborations will in practice be closer to the instrument, software, cadence details, data acquisition, and full simulations, and therefore will understand its characteristics better than will those from the general community starting to work with the data after first light. In addition, as part of their responsibility for validating the LSST data, Science Collaboration members will have access to early engineering and commissioning data.

Given the experience with data releases from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we expect that many scientific projects based on LSST data and data products will be done by individual or small groups of investigators requiring only limited volumes of data. Such projects may be done quite independently of the science collaborations, in the manner that most archival research is done today. On the other hand, work involving large subsets (especially images) of what will likely be the largest data set in existence will call for new algorithms, novel statistical techniques, and unprecedented resources in band-width and computational capacity. With this in mind, the science collaborations have the responsibility of making sure that the science potential of the LSST is met, and that the projects which will require large volume access are carried out effectively. The collaborations are for investigators who wish to participate in science which will stress the data bandwidth and computational resources of the LSST facility, and who in turn, agree to contribute substantially to the efforts to realize its science promise.

Just as for other resource limited facilities (such as observing time on national observatory telescopes), membership in the collaborations needs to be competed on merit, and hence the need for proposals competing for membership in the science collaborations. While there are multiple advantages in joining a science collaboration early, this is not a one time event: there will be future (probably annual) cycles for membership selection, to ensure opportunities for new participants, and also to accommodate evolving scientific priorities. We intend to allow forming new science collaborations in future cycles: these may be on new topics, as well as for bringing different, novel, and competing approaches to problems for which science collaborations already exist. These future proposal cycles will also be opportunities to review the membership in the existing collaborations.

You will enter the various parts of the application process in plain text. It will probably be easiest to prepare these using your favorite editor, and then cut and paste into the website. Note that the system requires that you fill in something for every one of the windows; if there is nothing of relevance for one of the windows, simply indicate NONE or NOT APPLICABLE in that window.

1. Describe your scientific interests and why you want to join this Science Collaboration.

Please describe specifically what you want to accomplish with LSST data in the context of the science collaboration to which you are applying. Thus this is an opportunity to describe a specific scientific project or area of investigation.

2. What aspects of LSST data and/or features of operation do you need to realize your scientific goals?

3. Will additional data or information (not provided by LSST) be needed to realize your scientific goals?

Are there data that need to be gathered in preparation for the project you describe? If no such data are needed, simply enter NONE in this window.

4. Provide information on your background, skills, and experience that are relevant to the Science Collaboration to which you are applying.

Describe what specific skills you (or your small group) bring to the problem at hand.

5. Provide a quantitative estimate of the level of effort you are willing to dedicate to this work and when that will begin.

It is expected that each member of a science collaboration contribute their share of the work of that collaboration (as described above in the previous section) early on in the process. The project aims to compile the collaboration science goals in a combined "science book", for which a kick-off meeting is planned in December, followed by a more comprehensive Aspen workshop in the summer of 2009. You may wish to indicate your availability for participation in these, including preparatory work prior to these meetings.

Those who will be in a position to contribute directly to LSST infrastructure will have a stronger application.

This section is about your external sources of funding and about telescope resources that you have access to. Again, indicate NONE for any entries for which there is nothing relevant.

Finally, you are able to attach figures to the application. You can save your work, and come back to it (or share the work with your group if you all know the relevant password). When you have completed, click the box at the bottom of the form labeled REQUEST COMPLETED.

For queries regarding the application or procedure, please contact us at the following e-mail address: lsstcollabqueries@noao.edu

First, please see the LSST posters, including presentations from each science collaboration, at the January 2008 AAS meeting. If you have further questions, please contact the chairs of the various collaborations.

Why is membership in the science collaborations limited to US scientists only?

The LSST is expected to be supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the member institutions, and a variety of private donations. Negotiations are on-going with the scientific communities of a variety of countries, part of which would include the right to apply for membership in the science collaborations. As host country, Chile will be the first country to join.

Please consider this application process with the seriousness and care you would put into an application for telescope time. Your application will be judged on the quality of your proposed science project, your own scientific background and experience in the field, your expected contributions to LSST infrastructure (although this is certainly not a requirement for membership), the amount of effort you are willing to put into the collaboration, and the extent to which your expertise and scientific interests are seen as complementary to the current membership of the science collaboration to which you are applying. In the latter context, it may be useful to contact the chair of the relevant science collaboration to explore what is needed most for each collaboration.

I am a particle physicist with little formal astronomy training, but am eager to be involved in LSST. Is it appropriate for me to apply for the science collaborations?

Absolutely. There are many opportunities for particle physicists to make contributions to the LSST project and science preparations. These range from development of science analyses with simulations to analysis of existing data sets to participation in precursor observing campaigns. Being a member of a science collaboration will provide an excellent way to learn and identify how best to apply your particular interests, background and skills.

Is there a possibility to start a science collaboration other than those listed? How about a competing science collaboration?

The LSST science goals are very broad. The existing science collaborations do not attempt to touch upon all possible science areas relevant for LSST. If you are interested in starting science collaboration on a subject that doesn't naturally fit into the existing collaboration, or feel that it would be appropriate to have a separate competing science collaboration in some subject, please contact Michael Strauss who is coordinating the science collaborations. We anticipate having a formal procedure to suggest new science collaborations with the next call for proposals (in roughly one year).

LSST data are not proprietary. Images and catalogs will be distributed regularly via a number of data access centers and accessible through VO-compliant services. Transient alerts will be issued within 60 seconds of each field visit via VOEventNet.

Annual data releases, including deep coadds of the images, will all be archived and available at all times. As yet unreleased data will also be available, but will bear the caveat that it has not yet been through the complete data release/quality assurance process.

The quantity of data (30 terabytes/night) is so great, however, that in practice, it will not be possible to serve all the data to everyone who wants it on arbitrarily short timescales. So, in addition to load managing and allocating requests for data download into managed service levels, the data access centers will also provide computing and storage resources for uploading end user codes and executing them at the centers and then downloading the results.

Finally, there will be a resource allocation process for pre-authorizing access at a higher performance level, based on scientific review similar to a telescope allocation process.

Why is there an application process? Why not simply let everyone who wishes join the science collaborations?

Membership in a science collaboration is an agreement to put real work into the collaboration, and not simply an interest in receiving e-mail updates. A collaboration that gets too large can become unwieldy and unfocused. Members of the science collaborations are welcome to attend LSST-wide meetings and take part in detailed discussions of infrastructure issues, but this may become awkward if the number of people involved gets too large. In future rounds of applications, we expect to allow the formation of more collaborations, even ones that can compete with existing ones.

This is possible but not encouraged. Given that membership in a science collaboration represents a commitment to that collaboration, if you apply for more than one collaboration, you will need to be explicit about how you will divide your time between them.

In order to apply for a second collaboration, you will need to reregister with a different username and password.

The collaborations will review activity by its members every two years. We expect inactive members will be replaced by fresh applicants.

I missed this year's application process. Will there be future opportunities?

Yes, we will have yearly applications. However, applicants who are prepared to begin work early will be given preference.

Now that I've filled out my application, what happens next? When can I expect a reply?

Once the volume of applications becomes known (after the deadline), a review panel of commensurate size will be appointed through the NOAO offices in consultation with the LSST Science Council, and high energy physicists through SLAC. The proposals will be reviewed by the Science Collaborations whose comments will be forwarded to the review committee, who will make a balanced appraisal of the various aspects of the proposals. They will make their recommendation to the LSST director.

This is so exciting, that I think I want to get my institution formally involved in the LSST collaboration. To whom should I talk?