One of the goals of the In-Kind Program is to augment the available resources for data- and compute-intensive use cases for the Rubin community. IDACs and SPCs, following the guidelines laid out by Rubin Observatory, will provide significant computing, storage, data, and experience for such use cases.
IDACs and SPCs will collectively provide access to CPUs, data storage, databases, and GPUs.
As described in the IDAC guidelines, all IDACs must allow any data rights holder to authenticate to use their services. As a Full IDAC, the UK Data Facility will provide access to the full LSST dataset, including Prompt Data Products, through a deployment of the Rubin Science Platform (RSP). Other IDACs and SPCs will in general host a subset of the LSST data alongside other potential data, and provide access and services tailored to specific needs. Planning for datasets and services is underway.
The table below lists the IDACs and SPCs expected to be active during Rubin Operations.
| Program | Type | Contacts |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Data Facility (Full IDAC) | Bob Mann, George Beckett |
| Argentina | Lite IDAC | Mariano Dominguez, Diego Garcia |
| Australia | Lite IDAC | Jarrod Hurley, Sarah Brough, Stuart Ryder |
| Brazil | Lite IDAC | Carlos Adean, Luiz Da Costa, Julia Gschwend |
| Canada | Full IDAC | JJ Kavelaars, Renée Hložek, Wes Fraser |
| Croatia | SPC | Tomislav Jurkić, Lovro Palaversa |
| Denmark | Lite IDAC | Christa Gall, Radek Wojtak, Hans Kjeldsen |
| Japan | Lite IDAC (x2) | Hisanori Furusawa, Naoki Yasuda, Masahiro Takada, Satoshi Miyazaki, Yutaka Komiyama |
| Mexico | Lite IDAC | Octavio Valenzuela, Luis Arturo Areña-López |
| Poland | Lite IDAC | Adam Zadrożny, Agniezka Pollo, Pawel̷ Pietrukowicz |
| Slovenia | Lite IDAC | Andrej Filipčič, Andreja Gomboc |
| Spain | Lite IDAC | Cristóbal Padilla, Ramon Miquel, Nacho Sevilla |
| South Korea | Lite IDAC | Chang Hee Ree, Narae Hwang, Byeong-Gon Park |
The virtual workshop Supporting Computational Science with Rubin LSST, held in March 2023, featured discussion of a significant number of use cases submitted by members of the science community. Links to the use cases, presentations, recordings, notes, and background material are available on the workshop web page.
IDACs are considering a range of specific use cases, including time series analyses, solar system occultation predictions, and development of photometric redshift training sets, as well as general use. IDACs are also following the development of the use cases identified in the workshop "From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST", and may adopt some of these as a basis for specific datasets and services.
When will IDACs and SPCs be available to the community?
As seen in this presentation, IDACs and SPCs are expected to start operations with the release of LSST DR1 sometime in 2026.
The IDACs Coordination Group maintains a space on Community for discussion and sharing knowledge amongst IDACs and SPCs and their user communities. Join the conversation!
Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Agreement No. 1258333, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The DOE-funded effort to build the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an
independent federal agency created by Congress
in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.
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