Progress towards a UK-based Independent Data Access Centre (IDAC) for Rubin Observatory's LSST

Originally aired on March 13, 2025 this LINCC Tech Talk features George Beckett of the University of Edinburgh. LINCC Tech Talks, hosted by LINCC Frameworks Project Scientists Colin Orion Chandler (DiRAC Institute, University of Washington) are Mi Dai (University of Pittsburg) are typically held the second Thursday of each month, with additional information and schedule available here: https://lsstdiscoveryalliance.org/pro...


Abstract:

Central to UK plans to for Rubin science is the setup and operation of a full, Independent Data Access Centre, to serve the full range of Rubin Observatory data products to the international community. Alongside this, we are also preparing to operate a Rubin Community Broker service -- which we call Lasair -- to receive and process the Observatory's real-time alert stream for various transient-astronomy applications.

In this talk, we will describe progress to prepare for operating a UK-based IDAC, including experience with key IDAC services, such as: the Rubin Science Platform; Qserv; and the Data Butler. We will describe the key capabilities that the UK IDAC will provide, including various derived data products for UK-priority science cases, and co-location with the Lasair community broker. We will also describe the infrastructure on which the UK IDAC will operate and how we plan to effectively and efficiently scale the hosting infrastructure to address the growing demand for astronomy over the 10+ years of the survey.

The UK IDAC is, at the time of writing, one of thirteen planned IDACs and Processing Science Centres, spread across the Americas, Europe and Australasia. In the run-up to the beginning of operations, it is important that the various IDAC providers collaborate to harmonise their various deployment plans and to maximise the potential for scientific discovery. LSST:UK is fully committed to the IDAC Coordination Group, which has begun to develop a common roadmap towards IDAC operations. We describe LSST:UK involvement in several collaborative ventures which should help ensure the IDAC network is ready for Rubin science.