Evaluating LSST Schedule Realizations
Abstract
How would one quantify and graphically represent the scientific performance of various scientific goals of a survey strategy? A simulated 10-year LSST observing schedule will produce 2.5x106 visits and in order to evaluate a simulated schedule, the project, collaborating scientists and team have defined tools called Merit Functions. Each Merit Function evaluates the success of a simulation in acquiring images with properties which characterize a specific parameter. Each Merit Function can be applied to a set of simulations, providing a single numerical value (a Metric) representative of the function and the simulation. The complete set of metric values can be used to quantitatively compare the performance of multiple simulated schedules. At present we are working with 6 groups of Merit functions: Airmass, Astrometry, Early Good Images, Randomization, Solar System, Variables & Transients and Uniformity. The Metrics derived from the Merit functions offer the possibility of comparing simulations quantitatively, within the context of defined functions. However, with dozens of metrics, it is still a challenge to present the results in a format that is both informative and objective. In this poster we show an early attempt to summarize the comparison of metric sets graphically.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #219
- Pub Date:
- January 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AAS...21915610C