Options for Alert Production in
LSST Operations Year 1

Abstract

This document reviews five options for alert production in LSST Operations Year 1 (LOY1), taking into account any implications on LSST formal requirements including up-scopes, down-scopes or explicit violations. The Data Management System Science Team’s preferred option for maximizing LSST science is to generate template images from as much of the commissioning data as possible (∼2000 $\rm deg^2$) and use them to run Difference Image Analysis and alert production during LOY1. A proposal to increase the sky area covered by commissioning-data templates in at least a single filter to ≳10,000 $\rm deg^2$ via a “filler” scheduler program is also presented. As a potential moderate up-scope, this study presents an option to build interim templates on a ∼monthly basis during LOY1, which could increase the accessible sky area by ∼1000-2000 $\rm deg^2$ per month, which can be reconsidered closer to the start of Operations.