Break 3:00-3:30
Turquoise Foyer

Review of the status of AIV efforts. 

As the first of two sessions to lay the groundwork for the Workshop on Impacts of Blending on LSST Science, this session will provide an overview of the blending challenges in the LSST data release pipelines, the current strategy for addressing blended objects, and the status of components of the pipeline most relevant to blended objects (e.g., the multiband deblender). 

AGENDA

* Peter Melchior: Blending and why it matters
* Jim Bosch: LSST Data Release Pipelines - Big Questions for Blending
* Fred Moolekamp: The current state of multi-band deblending with scarlet
* Peter Melchior: Open issues in blending and detection
* Open discussion

Google doc for scribe notes (key findings, next steps, actionable items)

For background, see these LSST DESC Blending Task Force presentations (~50 min each):

• 10/02/2017 Jim Bosch, "LSST Data Release Pipelines; Big Questions for Blending":  slides, Zoom video
• 10/16/2017 Peter Melchior (slides), Fred Moolekamp (slides), "Multi-band deblending for LSST": Zoom video
•  05/07/2018 Fred Moolekamp (slides), Peter Melchior (slides), "Improvements to SCARLET deblender; update on integration into the LSST stack; future directions in deblending":  Zoom video [arXiv:1802.10157]
• 06/18/2018 Jim Bosch, "Co-addition algorithms and impacts of blending": slides, Zoom video [This topic will also be discussed in "Perfect Pixels. Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology." session.]

This session will use Jupyter notebook tutorials to introduce tools for producing simulations of blended objects and running the new SCARLET deblender. The purpose is to prepare participants to characterize blending challenges for different science cases. Experts will be available in the DM hack room later in the workshop to help people make progress on the tutorials.

Agenda

We will briefly (~5-10 min) review the model and key data structures in SCARLET, then users will connect to the LSST Science Platform Notebook Aspect (https://nb.lsst.io/) to access two tutorials.

1. A notebook demonstrating how to use scarlet as a stand alone package and interacively modifying it's parameters
2. A notebook illustrating how to use scarlet in the DM stack.

Google doc for scribe notes (key findings, next steps, actionable items).

This session is dedicated to a discussion and comparison of current or planned tools that ingest real data (e.g., images from space, convolved with a ground-based PSF) or simulations, or embed simulated objects in real data, to provide training or test data sets for developing and evaluating algorithms to deal with blended objects.

AGENDA - As well as an overview of real or simulated data sets, we will hear about a few specific illustrative examples.

All presentations are in the single set of attached slides.

1.  Combining existing space & ground imaging - overview  - Harry Ferguson
  -  Example: HST/HSC - Will Dawson
2.  Catalog-based simulations - two blending-analysis examples.
3.  Pixel-level simulation tool kits -
  -  Example 1: Weak Lensing Deblending package - David Kirkby
  -  Example 2: Blending Tool Kit - Sowmya Kamath
  -  Example 3: Chromatic Real Galaxy - Sowmya Kamath
4.  Generative models for simulation - overview & examples - David Kirkby
5.  Simulations embedded in real data -
  -  Example:  Balrog (Dark Energy Survey) - Eric Huff

Discussion and planning.

Google doc for scribe notes (key findings, next steps, actionable items).

Session organisers: Pat Burchat and David Kirkby.

This session seeks to foster discussion of more specialized blending challenges than have been discussed thus far in this workshop, including solar system science and crowded fields.

Blending presents somewhat different challenges for solar system science than for other areas of astronomy due to the fact that solar system objects move, and so difference imaging may very well solve most blending situations that may come up.  However, there may still be challenges involving solar system objects and blending, such as distinguishing cometary activity (especially when associated with slow-moving objects) from blended background sources, and performing accurate photometric and morphological measurements of solar system objects moving across or close to background sources. This is particularly true early in the survey when faint stationary sources are less well characterized or when fields include partially saturated sources with poorly characterized point-spread-functions. Both of these will affect the quality of difference imaging analysis. We will also discuss how blending from solar system objects may affect other science areas, such as transient science.

Crowded stellar fields present other special challenges for deblending software, where iterative solutions are needed to find and model increasingly faint sources, and informative priors may be useful in regions where nearly all visible sources will be stars (such as in the galactic plane). These fields also share some of the same problems as solar system science, such as fields with a large number of saturated stars and the utility of (some nearby) moving objects decreasing the impact of blending if their motions can be properly accounted for. This session can also include a discussion of techniques for performing accurate photometric and astrometric measurements in crowded fields.

This session will provide an opportunity for those in the LSST community to consider whether blending-related challenges for their science (a) can be safely ignored, (b) are adequately addressed by de-blending algorithms being developed by other LSST community members for other science uses, or (c) require the development of science-specific tools to address -- and to discuss representative use cases with pipeline developers.  Discussions of other specialized blending challenges are also welcome. 

If you are interested in contributing to the session, please contact the session organiser Henry Hsieh.

Agenda

Overview of solar system blending cases -- Henry Hsieh

Solar system object astrometry in crowded fields -- Julio Camargo

Detection and astrometry of fast-moving objects -- Quan-Zhi Ye

Comparing the LSST standard pipeline and psf-fitting photometry in extremely crowded fields -- Veronica Dike

General discussion

Google doc for scribe notes (key findings, next steps, actionable items).

Breakfast on Your Own

Breakfast 8:00-9:00
Turquoise III

Breakfast 8:00-9:00
Presidio III/IV

ComCam's integration is scheduled to start in November 2018, with handover to Commissioning in the first half of 2019, and shipping to Chile sometime in the year after that. There are many details to discuss to make this happen. - Harmonize the schedule between T&S, Camera, Commissioning, and DM, ensuring shared milestones are understood - Discussion on integration and testing in Tucson - Determine what state the the summit White Room and Staging Areas need to reach and when - Check the TMA utilities for ComCam and the Refrigeration Pathfinder

This sessions is intended for LSST Project personnel, particularly those directly involved in commissioning planning.  We use these sessions to take several high level system requirements and develop detailed verification plans and tests down to specifying required input data, procedures, and post processing necessary to satisfy the verification requirements. At each stage of the verification process, we will identify personnel roles and locations where the specific activities will be conducted. Candidate Observatory System Specifications that will be addressed are:
OSS-REQ-0219: Wavefront Sensing on Sky Efficiency
OSS-REQ-0222: Ghost Image Control
OSS-REQ-0237: Filter Out of Band Constraints
OSS-REQ-0247: Total Optical Throughput
OSS-REQ-0334: Flat Fielding Allocations
OSS-REQ-0276: Calibration of the Atmospheric Transmission
OSS-REQ-0298: Absolute Pointing

As time permits we make simulate the activity flow for one of the verification events detailed.

Part 2 is in the same room at 1:30 PM.

Update to project and community on who we are and what we do. Communications team members from partners SLAC, NCSA and IN2P3 will also present:

• what the partner does for LSST
• how the communications office functions
• activities covered

This will be followed by a dialogue on what we could do in the future for maximum impact with our minimal resources. Ideas from the community/participants working on other projects with insights into what works well or not on those.

Audience: Anyone interested in LSST Communications

Agenda:

11:00-11:10 - LSST Communications Office update - R. Gill (@ranpalgill)
11:15-11:25 - SLAC Communications - M. Gnida (@manuelgnida)
11:30-11:40 - IN2P3 Communications - G. Shifrin (@momwontwait)
11:45-11:55 - NCSA Marketing & PA - H. Remmert 
12:00-12:30 - Open discussion on way forward

5 min Q/A between talks

Session organisers: R. Gill (Chair), S. Jacoby, K. Metzger

Dinner on Your Own

This room is available for DM team members to work on collaborative coding projects.

In addition, following on the popularity of the LSST Stack "self service" tutorial from last year we propose to provide the latest Stack Tutorial notebook this year on a Jupyter environment. There will once again be a roster of DM experts available in the DM Hack Room for tutorial participants to ask questions as they work through this notebook, LSST Software "DM Stack Club" community provided tutorial(s) or something you are working on yourself. We hope to have some people available for some part of each day.

This room is available for DM team members to work on collaborative coding projects.

In addition, following on the popularity of the LSST Stack "self service" tutorial from last year we propose to provide the latest Stack Tutorial notebook this year on a Jupyter environment. There will once again be a roster of DM experts available in the DM Hack Room for tutorial participants to ask questions as they work through this notebook, LSST Software "DM Stack Club" community provided tutorial(s) or something you are working on yourself. We hope to have some people available for some part of each day.

This room is available for DM team members to work on collaborative coding projects.

In addition, following on the popularity of the LSST Stack "self service" tutorial from last year we propose to provide the latest Stack Tutorial notebook this year on a Jupyter environment. There will once again be a roster of DM experts available in the DM Hack Room for tutorial participants to ask questions as they work through this notebook, LSST Software "DM Stack Club" community provided tutorial(s) or something you are working on yourself. We hope to have some people available for some part of each day.

This room is available for DM team members to work on collaborative coding projects.

In addition, following on the popularity of the LSST Stack "self service" tutorial from last year we propose to provide the latest Stack Tutorial notebook this year on a Jupyter environment. There will once again be a roster of DM experts available in the DM Hack Room for tutorial participants to ask questions as they work through this notebook, LSST Software "DM Stack Club" community provided tutorial(s) or something you are working on yourself. We hope to have some people available for some part of each day.

This room is available for DM team members to work on collaborative coding projects.

In addition, following on the popularity of the LSST Stack "self service" tutorial from last year we propose to provide the latest Stack Tutorial notebook this year on a Jupyter environment. There will once again be a roster of DM experts available in the DM Hack Room for tutorial participants to ask questions as they work through this notebook, LSST Software "DM Stack Club" community provided tutorial(s) or something you are working on yourself. We hope to have some people available for some part of each day.

This room is available for DM team members to work on collaborative coding projects.

Register to get an account at https://identity.lsst.org/login  if you don’t already have a LSST account

Data Release Production commissioning plan overview and status.

3.30 - 4.30 pm Working session on writing requirements: part 2  [All]
    Implementing requirements and test plans in JIRA for alert and data release production
4.30 - 4.45 pm DESC science validation plans [Chris Walter]
    Summary of DESC meeting validation discussion
    Developing a template for science validation tests
4.45 - 5.00 pm Wrap up and discussion of validation needs and expertise

Exploring the Final Frontier with LSST

Presented by

Phil Marshall & Ardis Herrold

Thursday, August 16th, 2018
7:00 pm, Turquoise Ballroom

The public is invited to join the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) team for an evening of astronomy with Cosmologist Phil Marshall and Education Specialist Ardis Herrold.  With Project Manager Victor Krabbendam, they will describe the construction status of the Tucson-based LSST, its mission of exploration, and how you can be involved in the discoveries of this amazing science engine. 

Currently under construction in Chile, LSST will survey the entire visible southern sky every few days for a decade – the widest, fastest, and deepest view of the night sky ever observed. LSST’s vast archive of data will dramatically advance our knowledge of the dark energy and dark matter that make up 95 percent of the Universe, as well as galaxy formation and potentially hazardous asteroids.  Much of the data archive will be available not only to professional scientists, but also to educators, students, amateur astronomers and members of the public interested in participating in “citizen science” projects.  Phil and Ardis will talk us through some of the many explorations LSST will make possible for scientists of all ages.

Following the talk, the speakers and other LSST team members will be available for informal conversations on topics including astronomy, engineering, STEM careers, LSST’s education and outreach programs, Big Data, Chile, and much more.  A no-host bar will be available.  LSST really is a telescope for everyone.  We encourage you to learn more about Tucson’s leadership role in this exciting project and how you can participate in—and benefit from—LSST’s ten-year voyage of scientific discovery.

# # #

Speaker Bios

Ardis Herrold is a nationally recognized science educator and a member of the LSST Education and Public Outreach team.  In addition to her 30+ years in the classroom, Ardis has served as president of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, received the Brennan Award for high school astronomy teaching by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and pioneered efforts to include students in authentic research experiences using federally funded research and development facilities such as Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and now LSST. @stardish

Phil Marshall is a staff scientist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, at SLAC, Stanford University and a member of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration.  His main research interest is observational cosmology using gravitational lensing: weighing galaxies, and measuring the expansion rate of the Universe. He is involved in a number of surveys to find new lenses, using both ground-based and space telescopes, including designing the strong lensing science analysis for LSST. @drphilmarshall

Victor Krabbendam has been LSST Project Manager since 2012, after eight years as Project Manager for the LSST Telescope & Site subsystem. Trained as a mechanical engineer, Victor has worked in industry, government, and with major astronomical research facilities including the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory and the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, a 4.1 meter telescope that is LSST's neighbor on Cerro Pachón. @VLK321

Grab & Go Lunch
 

The Prompt Products Database is integral to the operation of the Alert Generation Pipeline. Prototypes of both that database and the pipeline exist, but there remain a number of open questions and unresolved issues about the interfaces between these systems.

In this session, we will present a brief introduction to the current state of the art, then walk through an example of processing a visit through the Alert Generation Pipeline and explore its interactions with the PPDB.

The indented audience for this session consists of DM architects and developers with an interest in the design of the alert production system

Agenda:

• Definition of the PPDB (5 minutes, Eric Bellm)
• l1dbproto design & result (15 minutes, Andy Salnikov)
• AssociationTask: work to data and l1dbproto integration (15 minutes, Chris Morrison)
• Whiteboard exercise: AP processing (55 minutes, John Swinbank drawing, everybody contributing)

Come and learn about the LSST processing software (the "LSST Software Stack") by working your way through one of our community-built tutorial Jupyter notebooks, and then extending it to do the things you are most interested in. We'll provide access to a JupyterLab instance, so no installation will be required: you can just jump in. We'll give you a quick guided tour of the tutorials we've got, and a demonstration of one of them in action. Then, we'll break up into a short hack session. The Stack Club is an LSSTC-supported initiative that will be active by video through the Fall: you can get started in Tucson at the PCW, and then carry on learning with us when you get home. 

• Please register for a temporary LSST Science Platform account for use at the meeting if you don’t already have one.
• You can browse the Stack Club GitHub repo to find out more about what we are doing
• Check out the slides for this session (under development until Monday 1:30pm PDT)
• The session will be in the Joshua Tree room, but we'll use the Stack Club Zoom Room, https://stanford.zoom.us/j/946390572, instead of BlueJeans (so that we can record the session). Here's the program for the session:

• Welcome: Introduction to the Stack Club (Phil, ~15 mins) @drphilmarshall

• Example Tutorial: "Low-Surface Brightness Source Detection" (Alex ~20 min)

• How to Write a Stack Club Tutorial (~10 mins)

• Halftime break

• Divide into groups, to work through and discuss notebooks, and possible Stack Club projects (~ 40 min)

• Closeout: How to join the Stack Club (Phil, 5 min)

Lunch on your own

Lunch 12:30-1:30
Turquoise III

Overview of the M1M3 Thermal Control System and status update on the fan coil unit testing.

PRESIDIO I
40 Capacity

PRESIDIO II
30 Capacity

PRESIDIO III/IV
100 Capacity

CORONADO I
50 Capacity

AGAVE I/II
30 Capacity

AGAVE III
12 Capacity

PALO VERDE
20 Capacity

ALL MEETING ROOM AVAILABLE
NO A/V or Logistical Support

Break 10:30-11:00
Turquoise Foyer

Break 10:30-11:00
Turquoise Foyer

In the upcoming Call for White Papers on LSST Cadence Optimization (to be issued on June 30, 2018) we will promise "The Project will organize a dedicated session at the LSST 2018 All-hands meeting (Tucson, Aug 13-17) about this call for white papers, to further clarify details, exchange ideas, discuss simulated surveys, and coordinate teams that plan to submit white papers."

Updates from Project personnel about current development of the Moving Object Processing System (MOPS) for LSST and progress in evaluating impacts of proposed cadences on different areas of solar system science using the Operations Simulator (OpSim) and Metrics Analysis Framework (MAF), and discussion between Project personnel and interested scientists about upcoming MOPS development and cadence optimization efforts.

Proposed MOPS solar system data products table: http://ls.st/j7f

Agenda

Moving Object Processing System (MOPS) overview -- Lynne Jones

OpSim/Metrics Analysis Framework (MAF) overview -- Lynne Jones

General discussion, possibly including following topics:
- MOPS data schema/data products
- Cadence optimization white papers
- Alert brokers
 

3:30-3:55 PM Welcome & Status - S. Kahn/V. Krabbendam (@vlk321)
4:00-4:15 PM Verfication & Commissioning - Selvy/Claver/Reil
4:20-4:35 PM Performance Prediction - B. Xin
4:40-5:00 PM Student shout-outs

5 min question time between talks, remote participants to send questions through BlueJeans chat

CHAIR: Victor Krabbendam

9:00-9:30AM EPO 101 - A. Bauer
9:40 -10:15AM Lightning Stories - various speakers
10:20-10:30AM StoryTime-Domain Introduction

5 min question time between talks, remote participants to send questions through BlueJeans chat

CHAIR: Amanda Bauer

Breakout reports to be uploaded here ahead of time

11:00-12:15PM Breakout Reports - various speakers
12:20-12:30PM Closeout message - V. Krabbendam (@vlk321)

5 min question time between talks, remote participants to send questions through BlueJeans chat

CHAIR: Victor Krabbendam

SLIDES: http://ls.st/l3p

Second of two sessions. Managers, administrative assistants and other PMO support staff will take a “think tank” approach on topics such as workplace culture, new hire orientation, employee morale, expanding/enhancing Ben’s Bells, etc.

This session will focus on PSF estimation methods - and in particular what can be learned from PSF work occurring throughout the community.. Precursor surveys are dealing with some of the PSF estimation issues that LSST will face, and so this session would be an opportunity for LSST project personnel and community members to discuss PSF issue together. In addition, this session could be an opportunity for Camera & Telescope personnel to discuss how optics and focal plane performance may affect the LSST PSF.

Some questions we'd like to address include

Based on experience from working on DECam and HSC...

• What balance of engineering models (Zemax, finite-element analyses, metrology, ...) and empirical models should we pursue for incorporation into science pipelines?
• What engineering images (e.g., full-field out-of-focus donut images) taken during commissioning would be beneficial to help characterize the PSF for use in science pipelines?

We welcome additional questions from the community too.

Agenda

• Sensor+dithering stategy effect on residual PSF ellipticity (Tyson, 10 minutes)
• Double Zernikes and Nodal Aberration Theory (Bauman, 15 minutes)
• PSF modeling for DECam (Roodman, 12 minutes)
• Optical PSF modeling for HSC (Meyers, 12 minutes)

Please contact Josh Meyers (jmeyers314@gmail.com) if you'd like to present work during this session.

Break on your own

A cross working group session with members from the Camera, Simulation, DM, and DESC sensor groups to discuss the status of the current status of understanding, simulating and analysis of data from the science sensors.  Tuesday 11:00 Presidio I. Bluejeans: 279 099 131.

- Intro - Chris W. (5’)

- Overview of the focal plane construction status with a focus on sensors - Steve R. - (10’)

Sensor measurements and characterization: what we have learned, what there is left to do — and when — and projected relevant characteristics of the remaining rafts.

- Summary of the various Camera information expected from I&T - Aaron  (10’)

What will be produced,  what form will it be provided in,  Discussion (maybe below): how will LSST will store and utilize this information, e.g. the xtalk coefficients

-  Review of the  non-standard sensor effects we have seen/studied on the camera/DESC side  , with the work left to do associated to them ( on the DM / Camera / DESC side ) - Pierre A (10’)

-  Overview  of the signature removal plan/status in DM, and the associated validation plan - Merlin (10’)

-  Documenting/validation of imSim sensor models  - Serge (10’)

-  B-F effect correction as in the Coulton, et.al. paper - Craig (10’)

-  LSST sensor characterization study updates - Bela / Emily (10’)

Work at SLAC on overscan/bias and BF.

- Discussion - How can we effectively work together and transfer information between the camera, DM and simulation teams efficiently (20’)

The main purpose is to check on the set of pathfinder tests to make sure it is optimized and meets everyone’s schedules and needs.

SIGN UP NOW!

What is StoryTime Domain?

It's a place to tell YOUR story in an informal setting. We will have a video booth set up at LSST 2018 on Wednesday, Aug. 15 and Thursday, Aug. 16; we invite you to sign up for a 15-minute time-slot to speak with us.

What will happen there?

You can choose to answer prompt questions from a list, or just tell a story about your work on LSST or in LSST-related science. You can also bring a small object that has meaning for you, and is relevant to your work with LSST or your science field.

Why are we doing this?

Not everyone's work is in the spotlight, but everyone's work is important to the success of LSST. We want to highlight the real people contributing to LSST in different ways, in the U.S.,Chile, and all around the world. We're also thinking about the big picture; science storytelling gets the public excited about supporting scientific projects, and can inspire young people to pursue careers in STEM.

How will these videos be used?

Video stories collected will be archived in the LSST Project's documentation collection. The footage:

Will be edited for use in LSST's Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program
May be featured on the LSST Education Website
May be shared on LSST social media channels
May be used in videos created for classrooms
May be made available to planetariums and informal science centers

Questions you can use as prompts

• Describe a struggle or challenge you faced during your work on LSST, and how you solved it.
• Bring in an artifact and tell us how it relates to your work.
• What's a creative way you solved a problem?
• What are you passionate about?
• What brings you to work?
• Why do you believe in LSST?
• What or who influenced you to pursue a career in astronomy/engineering/etc?
• What celestial object do you most identify with?
• What do you do for fun when you're not building a telescope/doing astronomy/playing with data, etc.?
• Tell a funny story.

Please contact Kristen Metzger, LSST EPO Science Writer, at kmetzger@lsst.org with questions.

In this session, the ~20 summer interns attending the meeting will learn some essentials that will help them get the most out of the workshop.

Agenda:

• What are the components of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project, the "science drivers", and the stages of development (construction, commissioning, operation)?
• What is "blending" and why is it an issue?
• What is "survey strategy"?

Interns and invited guests

LSST will enable studies of the growing supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) on a truly massive scale - LSST plus multiwavelength data should allow the selection of tens of millions of AGNs. LSST will also provide unmatched source statistics on transient SMBH phenomena including stellar tidal disruptions, strong gravitational microlensing events, blazar flares, changing-look sources, and accretion-disk instabilities. This session will discuss these science prospects and promote planning for them with connections to the AGN Science Collaboration, the Galaxies Science Collaboration, the Transients Science Collaboration, Informatics and Statistics, and the Project. Some specific example topics for discussion will include the following: * LSST plus multiwavelength AGN selection and expected AGN yields * Optimizing AGN science in the LSST Deep Drilling Fields, and needed work on white papers on LSST cadence optimization * What are the most relevant data-mining projects that can be executed currently to prepare for LSST? * What improvements and updates are needed to the LSST AGN Science Collaboration Roadmap? * Current and planned activities of the LSST AGN Science Collaboration and other relevant collaborations * How can international resources best be pooled to follow-up the flood of LSST AGNs.

11:00-11:05 Welcome, Overview, and Activities of the AGN SC - W.N. Brandt
11:05-11:20 AGN Selection Opportunities and Challenges with the LSST - Jan-Torge Schindler
11:25-11:40 Three New z ~ 7 Quasars from DES and the Future of Quasar Surveys with LSST - Sophie Reed
11:45-12:00 Strongly Lensed AGNs: LSST Science Expectations and Cadence Needs - Timo Anguita
12:05-12:20 Needed Data-Mining to Prepare for LSST AGN Science and Chilean AGN Follow-Up Capabilities - Franz Bauer

5 min question time between talks.

Session Organizers: W.N. Brandt (Chair), Franz Bauer, Gordon Richards, Michael Strauss

Rolling cadences: It is well-understood that the LSST uniform cadences, as illustrated by benchmark schedule simulations presented at recent annual meetings, have substantial gaps between visits in the same filter, and for most visits will not obtain contemporaneous colors for transient targets.  Several groups have thought about what modifications to the uniform cadences might benefit particular science objectives. A particularly often mentioned scheduling option is the rolling cadence, whereby some (or all) parts of the sky are visited with a higher frequency during certain prescribed intervals, at the expense of longer gaps at other intervals. However, a rolling cadence prescription may have many parameters. It can be hoped that LSST will have an interesting variety of rolling cadence simulations by the time of LSST-2018. This would be a timely opportunity for in-depth review of rolling cadence options.

Dithering: Dithering of visits is widely assumed to be a feature of the LSST survey. Beyond that assumption, there is little concurrence on the characteristics of that dithering. Small amplitude dithering may be most convenient for reducing detector systematics while controlling revisit intervals, whereas large amplitude dithering may best support suppression of imaging systematics. Dithering promotes uniformity of stacked imagery, but substantially complicates positive control of that uniformity. This topic would benefit from presentation of several distinct dithering options to a discriminating audience.

The length of the cadence "season": some cadence objectives, such as shorter visit gaps and lower airmass visits, naturally tend to shorten the length of the observing season on a per target basis, possibly to the detriment of some science.

Please contact Steve Ridgway (ridgway@noao.edu) if you would like to contribute or add topics.

Owing to conflicts, participants may come and go, and the agenda topics, and contributions, may blur over both sessions.  

Contributors identified so far:

DESC cadence needs (Dan Scolnic, Humna Awan)
1 vs 2 image visits (Chris Stubbs)
Strong Lensing (Phil Marshall, Aprajita Verma, ....)
Galaxies (Eric Gawiser)
Simulations for cadence options (Lynn Jones, Owen Boberg, Tiago Ribiero)
Rolling cadences (Peter Yoachim)
Solar system cadences (David Trilling, Henry Hsieh)
AGN (Gordon Richards, Neil Brandt)
Intelligent exposures, dithering (Tony Tyson)
Dwarf galaxy cadence needs (Steve Ridgway)
SN cosmology (Renée Hlozek, Nicolas Regnault)
Comments (Robert Lupton)

Report on the status of T&S subsystem verification efforts: - Requirements (Andrew) - Mechanical Interfaces (John A.) - Electrical Interfaces (Oliver W.) - Software Interfaces (Andrew)

A study for a "Probe"-class NASA mission concept, the Time-domain Spectroscopic Observatory (TSO), is being developed for the upcoming Astro2020 Decadal Survey. TSO would be a ~1.5m optical-IR (0.4um - 5um) imaging and spectroscopic telescope, radiatively cooled (110K) and in Geosynch orbit over LSST. This 1.5-hour Session will present the TSO concept and stimulate discussion of how the highest priority LSST variables and transients can be studied with a synergistic space telescope devoted to rapid imaging and spectroscopy extending to the mid-IR. The rapid-slew (<5min) capability to targets over 80% (!) of the sky (>30^o from Earth, Sun and Moon) and cold mirror enable imaging and spectroscopy sensitivities not possible from the ground: for 30, 3000 sec exposures, imaging reaches 10sigma significance magnitudes of AB = 22.3, 26 and spectroscopy with resolution R = 200 reaches AB = 18.4, 23 over the full 0.4 - 5um band. Key science objectives include high-z Gamma-Ray Bursts, which will measure massive star formation and the Epoch of Reionization over redshifts z > 8 - 12, and Reverberation Mapping of AGN using Hbeta emission line spectroscopy combined with LSST continuum flaring to measure SMBH masses out to z = 8. A few TSO slides are uploaded here to encourage you to come and learn more about this exciting opportunity to extend LSST Time Domain Astronomy with both spectroscopy and extension(s) into the mid-IR.  Please contribute your own ideas for what such a unique spectroscopy and IR capability could do for your LSST science!

PLEASE let me (Josh Grindlay, jgrindlay@cfa.harvard.edu) know if you would like to show a few slides and/or contribute to any of the 4 Discussion sections listed below. NOW is the time to push for near real-time spectroscopy for LSST; please let us know your science interests!

TSO Session Agenda:

9:00am Session Introduction: Zeljko Ivezic (U. Washington) & Josh Grindlay (Harvard)

9:10  Overview of TSO:  Josh Grindlay

9:30 Discussion and short presentations on TSO science for LSST. What should be added?

9:45 Discussion and short presentations on TSO instrumentation. Is the current focal plane design optimized for your Science goals?

10:00 Discussion and short presentations on prioritization of LSST alerts. GRB alerts will come from Swift (and more advanced future missions, e.g. 4piXIO?). How are the MOST urgent LSST transient alerts to be extracted from near-real time LSST data? 

10:15 Discussion of how to implement TSO Key Science with a GI program. Variability studies and particular classes of Transient searches can be proposed as GI programs. What others are "natural" for the joint LSST-TSO capabilities? What about coordinated X-ray (Athena, Lynx) or gamma-ray (Fermi or CTA) observations with TSO/LSST ?

10:30  Session close

The development of new data access middleware (the “Generation 3” Data Butler”) and workflow description abstraction (PipelineTask, formerly known as SuperTask) has been making rapid progress for some time. Over the next several months, more and more of this work will filter down to regular pipeline deployments, until ultimately the old middleware can be retired.

In this session, Jim Bosch will give an overview of the key concepts and then DM middleware developers will be available to field questions and walk through examples of the new capabilities and transition plan.

This session is intended to be of interest to DM Science Pipelines developers or others who are regularly writing algorithmic code in the LSST framework.

This session will provide an overview of the software tooling developed and customized for the needs of the LSST verification program, which is available to subsystems and Project Systems Engineering alike. The session will review the integrated capabilities of MagicDraw, Syndeia, and JIRA Adaptivist Test Management. Together, they form an end-to-end verification suite.

The demo is a repeat of Verification Software Tooling 1 on Tuesday at 11:00 AM.