Related papers: Global Site Selection for Astronomy
We present details of the Behind The Plane survey of IRAS galaxies, which extends the PSCz survey to cover the 93% of the sky with complete and reliable IRAS data from the Point Source Catalog. At low latitudes, our catalogue is not…
We present a new method for quantifying the abundance of satellites around field galaxies and in groups. The method is designed to work with samples, such as local photometric redshift catalogues, that do not have full spectroscopic…
The traffic in cislunar space is expected to increase over the coming years, leading to a higher likelihood of conjunction events among active satellites, orbital debris, and non-cooperative satellites. This increase necessitates enhanced…
We present the first results of the SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) Gravitational Arc Survey (SOGRAS). The survey imaged 47 clusters in two redshift intervals centered at $z=0.27$ and $z=0.55$, targeting the richest clusters in each…
The sample of Solar system objects has dramatically increased over the last decade. The amount of measured properties (e.g., diameter, taxonomy, rotation period, thermal inertia) has grown even faster. However, this wealth of information is…
We analyze the density field of galaxies observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) included in the SDSS Data Release Nine (DR9). DR9 includes spectroscopic redshifts for over 400,000…
Our view of the low-redshift Cosmic Web has been revolutionized by galaxy redshift surveys such as 6dFGS, SDSS and 2MRS. However, the trade-off between depth and angular coverage limits a systematic three-dimensional account of the entire…
The availability of satellite communication systems is extremely limited by atmospheric impairments, such as rain (for radio frequencies) and cloud coverage (for optical frequencies). A solution to this problem is the site diversity…
Earth observation (EO) satellite missions have been providing detailed images about the state of the Earth and its land cover for over 50 years. Long term missions, such as NASA's Landsat, Terra, and Aqua satellites, and more recently, the…
The advent of next-generation imaging telescopes such as LSST and Pan-STARRS has revitalized the need for deep and precise reference frames. The proposed weak-lensing observations with these facilities put the highest demands on image…
In this paper we present a number of metrics for usage of the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS). Since the ADS is used by the entire astronomical community, these are indicative of how the astronomical literature is used. We will show…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next high-energy gamma-ray observatory. Selection of the sites, one in each hemisphere, is not obvious since several factors have to be taken into account. Among them, and probably the most…
Various aspects of cosmology require comprehensive all-sky mapping of the cosmic web to considerable depths. In order to probe the whole extragalactic sky beyond 100 Mpc, one must draw on multiwavelength datasets and state-of-the-art…
We have built a reliable and robust system that takes as input an astronomical image, and returns as output the pointing, scale, and orientation of that image (the astrometric calibration or WCS information). The system requires no first…
The development of analytical software for big Earth observation data faces several challenges. Designers need to balance between conflicting factors. Solutions that are efficient for specific hardware architectures can not be used in other…
The AiTLAS toolbox (Artificial Intelligence Toolbox for Earth Observation) includes state-of-the-art machine learning methods for exploratory and predictive analysis of satellite imagery as well as repository of AI-ready Earth Observation…
Megaconstellations of thousands to tens of thousands of artificial satellites (satcons) are rapidly being developed and launched. These satcons will have negative consequences for observational astronomy research, and are poised to…
We combine Gaia DR1, PS1, SDSS and 2MASS astrometry to measure proper motions for 350 million sources across three-fourths of the sky down to a magnitude of $m_r\sim20$\,. Using positions of galaxies from PS1, we build a common reference…
We propose an object detection algorithm which is efficient and fast enough to be used in (almost) real time with the limited computer capacities onboard satellites. For stars below the saturation limit of the CCD detectors it is based on a…
The irregular satellites of the giant planets are believed to have been captured during the evolution of the solar system. Knowing their physical parameters, such as size, density, and albedo is important for constraining where they came…