Contributed Computing Resources
Independent Data Access Centers (IDACs) and Scientific Processing Centers (SPCs)
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.
What kinds of contributed computing resources will be available?
IDACs and SPCs will collectively provide access to CPUs, data storage, databases, and GPUs.
Who has proposed computing resource contributions?
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 | Lite IDAC | Stephen Gwyn, 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 | Krzysztof Nawrocki, 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 |
What data and services will be available?
This spreadsheet reflects the current plans for the Rubin data, services, and potential use cases to be supported at indivudual IDACs.
What are some potential uses of contributed computing resources?
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.
Want to know more?
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!