An end-to-end simulation framework for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

The LSST will, over a 10-year period, produce a multi-color, multi-epoch survey of more than 18000 square degrees of the southern sky. It will generate a multi-petabyte archive of images and catalogs of astrophysical sources from which a wide variety of high-precision statistical studies can be undertaken. To accomplish these goals, the LSST project has developed a suite of modeling and simulation tools for use in validating that the design and the as-delivered components of the LSST system will yield data products with the required statistical properties. In this paper we describe the development, and use of the LSST simulation framework, including the generation of simulated catalogs and images for targeted trade studies, simulations of the observing cadence of the LSST, the creation of large-scale simulations that test the procedures for data calibration, and use of end-to-end image simulations to evaluate the performance of the system as a whole.