Seminario DAS: "High cadence surveys and the future ecosystem of time domain astronomy"

Speaker: Dr. Francisco Förster Burón
Center for Mathematical Modeling - U. Chile & Millennium Institute for Astrophysics

Title: "High cadence surveys and the future ecosystem of time domain astronomy"

Abstract: A new generation of high etendue telescopes is allowing us to explore large volumes of the Universe with fast cadences. This has led to the discovery of new populations of events or the new phases of evolution of known populations of events. In order to take advantage of these new discoveries several new tools are required. Among them are high performance image processing tools, fast machine learning aided discovery and classification algorithms, interoperable tools that allow an effective communication between the different astronomical infrastructure, new models which allows interpreting new regions of the parameter space, and new tools to extract the most physical knowledge from these observations. In this talk I will review some examples of high cadence surveys, their tools and scientific results, in particular concerning our experience with the High cadence Transient Survey (HiTS). I will also discuss the future ecosystem of time domain astronomy in the era of high cadence observations, where a new layer of astronomical alert brokers and target and observation managers will be required to connect survey and follow-up telescopes. In particular, I will discuss the challenges and opportunities found while developing the ALeRCE astronomical broker and its implications for the future of multi messenger astronomy.

Rene A. Mendez
Seminar Coordinator
DAS/UChile - rmendez@uchile.cl