Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation
Sorcha is a solar system survey simulator built for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and future large-scale wide-field surveys. Over the 10 yr survey, the LSST is expected to collect roughly a billion observations of minor planets. The task of a solar system sur...
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| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astronomical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ade435 |
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| author | Matthew J. Holman Pedro H. Bernardinelli Megan E. Schwamb Mario Jurić Drew Oldag Maxine West Kevin J. Napier Stephanie R. Merritt Grigori Fedorets Samuel Cornwall Jacob A. Kurlander Siegfried Eggl Jeremy Kubica Kathleen Kiker Joseph Murtagh Shantanu P. Naidu Colin Orion Chandler |
| author_facet | Matthew J. Holman Pedro H. Bernardinelli Megan E. Schwamb Mario Jurić Drew Oldag Maxine West Kevin J. Napier Stephanie R. Merritt Grigori Fedorets Samuel Cornwall Jacob A. Kurlander Siegfried Eggl Jeremy Kubica Kathleen Kiker Joseph Murtagh Shantanu P. Naidu Colin Orion Chandler |
| author_sort | Matthew J. Holman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Sorcha is a solar system survey simulator built for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and future large-scale wide-field surveys. Over the 10 yr survey, the LSST is expected to collect roughly a billion observations of minor planets. The task of a solar system survey simulator is to take a set of input objects (described by orbits and physical properties) and determine what a real or hypothetical survey would have discovered. Existing survey simulators have a computational bottleneck in determining which input objects lie in each survey field, making them infeasible for LSST data scales. Sorcha can swiftly, efficiently, and accurately calculate the on-sky positions for sets of millions of input orbits and surveys with millions of visits, identifying which exposures these objects cross, in order for later stages of the software to make detailed estimates of the apparent magnitude and detectability of those input small bodies. In this paper, we provide the full details of the algorithm and software behind Sorcha ’s ephemeris generator. Like many of Sorcha ’s components, its ephemeris generator can be easily used for other surveys. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6a2f371db89a4ce0abdfadf7e3707309 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1538-3881 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astronomical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-6a2f371db89a4ce0abdfadf7e37073092025-08-20T03:13:26ZengIOP PublishingThe Astronomical Journal1538-38812025-01-0117029710.3847/1538-3881/ade435Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris GenerationMatthew J. Holman0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1139-4880Pedro H. Bernardinelli1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0743-9422Megan E. Schwamb2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4365-1455Mario Jurić3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1996-9252Drew Oldag4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6984-8411Maxine West5https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3171-3118Kevin J. Napier6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4827-5049Stephanie R. Merritt7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5930-2829Grigori Fedorets8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8418-4809Samuel Cornwall9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0672-5104Jacob A. Kurlander10https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5452-0671Siegfried Eggl11https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1398-6302Jeremy Kubica12https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2281-7031Kathleen Kiker13Joseph Murtagh14https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9505-1131Shantanu P. Naidu15https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4439-7014Colin Orion Chandler16https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7335-1715Center for Astrophysics—Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; mholman@cfa.harvard.eduDiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE., Seattle, WA 98195, USAAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UKDiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE., Seattle, WA 98195, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE., Seattle, WA 98195, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE., Seattle, WA 98195, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USACenter for Astrophysics—Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; mholman@cfa.harvard.edu; Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USAAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UKAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UK; Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO, University of Turku , FI-20014 Turku, Finland; Department of Physics, University of Helsinki , P.O. Box 64, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE., Seattle, WA 98195, USADepartment of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USA; National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USALSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USAAsteroid Institute , 20 Sunnyside Avenue, Suite 427, Mill Valley, CA 94941, USAAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UKJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE., Seattle, WA 98195, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USASorcha is a solar system survey simulator built for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and future large-scale wide-field surveys. Over the 10 yr survey, the LSST is expected to collect roughly a billion observations of minor planets. The task of a solar system survey simulator is to take a set of input objects (described by orbits and physical properties) and determine what a real or hypothetical survey would have discovered. Existing survey simulators have a computational bottleneck in determining which input objects lie in each survey field, making them infeasible for LSST data scales. Sorcha can swiftly, efficiently, and accurately calculate the on-sky positions for sets of millions of input orbits and surveys with millions of visits, identifying which exposures these objects cross, in order for later stages of the software to make detailed estimates of the apparent magnitude and detectability of those input small bodies. In this paper, we provide the full details of the algorithm and software behind Sorcha ’s ephemeris generator. Like many of Sorcha ’s components, its ephemeris generator can be easily used for other surveys.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ade435EphemeridesSmall Solar System bodiesN-body simulationsSky surveys |
| spellingShingle | Matthew J. Holman Pedro H. Bernardinelli Megan E. Schwamb Mario Jurić Drew Oldag Maxine West Kevin J. Napier Stephanie R. Merritt Grigori Fedorets Samuel Cornwall Jacob A. Kurlander Siegfried Eggl Jeremy Kubica Kathleen Kiker Joseph Murtagh Shantanu P. Naidu Colin Orion Chandler Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation The Astronomical Journal Ephemerides Small Solar System bodies N-body simulations Sky surveys |
| title | Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation |
| title_full | Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation |
| title_fullStr | Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation |
| title_short | Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation |
| title_sort | sorcha optimized solar system ephemeris generation |
| topic | Ephemerides Small Solar System bodies N-body simulations Sky surveys |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ade435 |
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