Real-time processing of the imaging data from the network of Las Cumbres Observatory Telescopes using BANZAI. (arXiv:1811.04163v1 [astro-ph.IM])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+McCully_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Curtis McCully</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Volgenau_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">Nikolaus H. Volgenau</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Harbeck_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Daniel-Rolf Harbeck</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Lister_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">Tim A. Lister</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Saunders_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">Eric S. Saunders</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Turner_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Monica L. Turner</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Siverd_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Robert J. Siverd</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bowman_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Mark Bowman</a>
Work in time-domain astronomy necessitates robust, automated data processing
pipelines that operate in real time. We present the BANZAI pipeline which
processes the thousands of science images produced across the Las Cumbres
Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) network of robotic telescopes each night.
BANZAI is designed to perform near real-time preview and end-of-night final
processing for four types of optical CCD imagers on the three LCOGT telescope
classes. It performs instrumental signature removal (bad pixel masking, bias
and dark removal, flat-field correction), astrometric fitting and source
catalog extraction. We discuss the design considerations for BANZAI, including
testing, performance, and extensibility. BANZAI is integrated into the
observatory infrastructure and fulfills two critical functions: (1) real-time
data processing that delivers data to users quickly and (2) derive metrics from
those data products to monitor the health of the telescope network. In the era
of time-domain astronomy, to get from these observations to scientific results,
we must be able to automatically reduce data with minimal human interaction,
but still have insight into the data stream for quality control.
Work in time-domain astronomy necessitates robust, automated data processing
pipelines that operate in real time. We present the BANZAI pipeline which
processes the thousands of science images produced across the Las Cumbres
Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) network of robotic telescopes each night.
BANZAI is designed to perform near real-time preview and end-of-night final
processing for four types of optical CCD imagers on the three LCOGT telescope
classes. It performs instrumental signature removal (bad pixel masking, bias
and dark removal, flat-field correction), astrometric fitting and source
catalog extraction. We discuss the design considerations for BANZAI, including
testing, performance, and extensibility. BANZAI is integrated into the
observatory infrastructure and fulfills two critical functions: (1) real-time
data processing that delivers data to users quickly and (2) derive metrics from
those data products to monitor the health of the telescope network. In the era
of time-domain astronomy, to get from these observations to scientific results,
we must be able to automatically reduce data with minimal human interaction,
but still have insight into the data stream for quality control.
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