학술논문

The zwicky transient facility: Surveys and scheduler
Document Type
article
Source
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 131(1000)
Subject
methods: observational
surveys
astro-ph.IM
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Astronomical and Space Sciences
Language
Abstract
We present a novel algorithm for scheduling the observations of time-domain imaging surveys. Our integer linear programming approach optimizes an observing plan for an entire night by assigning targets to temporal blocks, enabling strict control of the number of exposures obtained per field and minimizing filter changes. A subsequent optimization step minimizes slew times between each observation. Our optimization metric self-consistently weights contributions from time-varying airmass, seeing, and sky brightness to maximize the transient discovery rate. We describe the implementation of this algorithm on the surveys of the Zwicky Transient Facility and present its on-sky performance.