The LSST DESC DC2 Simulated Sky Survey
Abstract
We describe the simulated sky survey underlying the second data challenge (DC2) carried out in preparation for analysis of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) by the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (LSST DESC). Significant connections across multiple science domains will be a hallmark of LSST; the DC2 program represents a unique modeling effort that stresses this interconnectivity in a way that has not been attempted before. This effort encompasses a full end-to-end approach: starting from a large N-body simulation, through setting up LSST-like observations including realistic cadences, through image simulations, and finally processing with Rubin's LSST Science Pipelines. This last step ensures that we generate data products resembling those to be delivered by the Rubin Observatory as closely as is currently possible. The simulated DC2 sky survey covers six optical bands in a wide-fast-deep (WFD) area of approximately 300 deg^2 as well as a deep drilling field (DDF) of approximately 1 deg^2. We simulate 5 years of the planned 10-year survey. The DC2 sky survey has multiple purposes. First, the LSST DESC working groups can use the dataset to develop a range of DESC analysis pipelines to prepare for the advent of actual data. Second, it serves as a realistic testbed for the image processing software under development for LSST by the Rubin Observatory. In particular, simulated data provide a controlled way to investigate certain image-level systematic effects. Finally, the DC2 sky survey enables the exploration of new scientific ideas in both static and time-domain cosmology.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2010.05926,
title = {The LSST DESC DC2 Simulated Sky Survey},
author = {LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration and Bela Abolfathi and David Alonso and Robert Armstrong and Éric Aubourg and Humna Awan and Yadu N. Babuji and Franz Erik Bauer and Rachel Bean and George Beckett and Rahul Biswas and Joanne R. Bogart and Dominique Boutigny and Kyle Chard and James Chiang and Chuck F. Claver and Johann Cohen-Tanugi and Céline Combet and Andrew J. Connolly and Scott F. Daniel and Seth W. Digel and Alex Drlica-Wagner and Richard Dubois and Emmanuel Gangler and Eric Gawiser and Thomas Glanzman and Phillipe Gris and Salman Habib and Andrew P. Hearin and Katrin Heitmann and Fabio Hernandez and Renée Hložek and Joseph Hollowed and Mustapha Ishak and Željko Ivezić and Mike Jarvis and Saurabh W. Jha and Steven M. Kahn and J. Bryce Kalmbach and Heather M. Kelly and Eve Kovacs and Danila Korytov and K. Simon Krughoff and Craig S. Lage and François Lanusse and Patricia Larsen and Laurent Le Guillou and Nan Li and Emily Phillips Longley and Robert H. Lupton and Rachel Mandelbaum and Yao-Yuan Mao and Phil Marshall and Joshua E. Meyers and Marc Moniez and Christopher B. Morrison and Andrei Nomerotski and Paul O'Connor and HyeYun Park and Ji Won Park and Julien Peloton and Daniel Perrefort and James Perry and Stéphane Plaszczynski and Adrian Pope and Andrew Rasmussen and Kevin Reil and Aaron J. Roodman and Eli S. Rykoff and F. Javier Sánchez and Samuel J. Schmidt and Daniel Scolnic and Christopher W. Stubbs and J. Anthony Tyson and Thomas D. Uram and Antonia Villarreal and Christopher W. Walter and Matthew P. Wiesner and W. Michael Wood-Vasey and Joe Zuntz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.05926},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
39 pages, 19 figures, version accepted for publication in ApJS