Time Domain Explorations With Digital Sky Surveys

Ashish A. Mahabal, S. G. Djorgovski, M. J. Graham, Priya Kollipara, Benjamin Granett, Elisabeth Krause, Roy Williams, M. Bogosavljevic, C. Baltay, D. Rabinowitz, A. Bauer, P. Andrews, N. Ellman, S. Duffau, J. Jerke, A. Rengstorf, R. Brunner, J. Musser, S. Mufson and M. Gebhard (2005) Time Domain Explorations With Digital Sky Surveys. In: Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XIV. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series (XXX). Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, CA, P2.2.7.

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Abstract

One of the new frontiers of astronomical research is the exploration of time variability on the sky at different wavelengths and flux levels. We have carried out a pilot project using DPOSS data to study strong variables and transients, and are now extending it to the new Palomar-QUEST synoptic sky survey. We report on our early findings and outline the methodology to be implemented in preparation for a real-time transient detection pipeline. In addition to large numbers of known types of highly variable sources (e.g., SNe, CVs, OVV QSOs, etc.), we expect to find numerous transients whose nature may be established by a rapid follow-up. Whereas we will make all detected variables publicly available through the web, we anticipate that email alerts would be issued in the real time for a subset of events deemed to be the most interesting. This real-time process entails many challenges, in an effort to maintain a high completeness while keeping the contamination low. We will utilize distributed Grid services developed by the GRIST project, and implement a variety of advanced statistical and machine learning techniques.

EPrint Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	This work was supported in part by the NSF grants AST-0326524, AST-0407448 and the NASA contract NAG5-9482. PK and EK were supported in part by SURF Fellowships at Caltech. SGD acknowledges a partial support from the Ajax Foundation. Also available: arXiv:astro-ph/0412164 v1 7 Dec 2004
Subjects:	All Records
ID Code:	125
Deposited By:	Sarah M. Emery
Deposited On:	15 February 2006
Record Number:	CaltechCACR:2005.117
Official Persistent URL:	http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechCACR:2005.117
Usage Policy:	You are granted permission for individual, educational, research and non-commercial reproduction, distribution, display and performance of this work in any format.

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