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Sloan Digital Sky Survey Review
of Observing Systems and Survey Operations
Data Processing at Fermilab Steve Kent April 12,
2000
Functions
The data processing system at Fermilab receives data from the
imager, the spectrographs, and the Photometric Telescope (PT) that are
shipped on magnetic tape. The imager and PT data are fed through a series
of pipelines that perform astrometric and photometric calibrations of the
2.5 m data, identify and catalog stars, galaxies, and quasars, select
targets for spectroscopy, and provide plates designs for plate drilling.
Interactions with APO operations occur in the following way:
- APO is provided with a monthly imaging observing plan.
- Plate design files are provided to UW and to APO at approximately 2
month intervals.
- Tapes are shipped to APO every morning after a night on which data
were collected.
- Feedback is provided to indicate which areas of the sky or plates need
reobserving because of data not meeting specification.
- Feedback is provided to signal problems in instruments, data collection
programs, or observing procedures that affect the data quality.
Current Status
The mechanical aspects of data processing are largely in place. Data
tapes are express shipped to Fermilab the critical data processing
pipelines for the PT and 2.5 m imaging data are fully functional and are
largely automated. Procedures exist for spooling input data, running jobs,
collating and assessing the quality of the output data, writing the object
catalogs to a database and bulk data to tape, and documenting the process.
Similar procedures exist to handle the spectroscopic data, although they are
less mature. The processing resources (CPU, disk, and tape) are in place
and are adequate to handle the volume of data received to date. We are
planning to upgrade the CPU and disk this fiscal year. The target selection
and plate design pipelines are currently run interactively. Plate design
files are distributed via a web site and are used by UW and APO. Processed
data is being distributed routinely to the collaboration. To date we have
processed of order 3 terabytes of raw imaging, data, designed over 200 plug
plates, and processed 30 spectroscopic plates (12,000 spectra).
What's missing
Items 1, 2, and 3 below affect our ability to meet survey
requirements. The remainder affect the overall operational efficiency of the
survey in some way.
- The photometric calibrations have been troublesome, in particular various
problems existed with detector contamination and inadequate telescope
baffling that affected the accuracy of the calibration. We think the
problems are solved, and some testing has been done that shows this,
but addtional verification is needed. The details of the transfer of
photometric calibrations from the PT to the 2.5 m will change and will
change the photometric zero-points slightly.
- The target selection algorithms, while close to completion, are not
absolutely finished and fully verified. The galaxy selection algorithm is
the most advanced, and aside from possible shifts in the photometric
zero-point, it is thought to be done the remaining work to be done is
verification. The quasar algorithm is 90% complete, but much testing and
running of the algorithms on a variety of data remain. It will be
finalized by this summer. The remaining algorithms are in various states
of completion but they have less impact because they are used for
categories that not intended to be complete surveys.
- The criteria for acceptance or rejection of data are not fully defined,
most importantly criteria on image quality. The current spec would cause
rejection of virtually all data taken to date.
- The survey strategy process, which provides observing plans to APO,
is still done by hand, and there is currently only crude feedback from
the results of data processing to determine which areas of the sky are
completed or in need of reobserving. Since we have so much new sky
to observe, this is not a major problem at the moment, but will become so
in a year.
- The goal for turning around the imaging data through plate design is
1 month, not the 2 being achieved at present. Since spectroscopic
observing is not consuming plates at the maximum expected rate, the 2
month turnaround is not yet a serious problem. Minor formatting problems
with data being delivered from APO need to be resolved. The planned
computing hardware upgrade will quadruple the processing power, reducing
the turnaround time.
- There are still planned enhancements to the photometric pipeline that
might affect which objects are targeted.
 
Review of Observing Systems and Survey
Operations Apache Point Observatory April 25-27, 2000
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