Data access and analysis

The four main ways to access and analyze Rubin data:

• Rubin Science Platform
• Alert Brokers
• Minor Planet Center
• Independent Data Access Centers

Rubin Science Platform (RSP)

The RSP is a web-based service for access and analysis of LSST data.

URL: data.lsst.cloud

Accounts: All Rubin data rights holders may have an RSP account. Follow these instructions to create a new RSP account.

Hosted datasets: The Prompt Products Database, including light curves and moving objects, and the last two annual Data Releases, including observational metadata. List of recent data releases.

Data services: The RSP's three aspects offer a range of functionality. The Portal Aspect is a graphical, browser-based interface for data discovery and visualization. The Notebook Aspect is a Jupyter lab interface for scripted data access and analysis. The API Aspect provides remote access based on IVOA Virtual Observatory standards; API stands for Application Programming Interface. Users requiring computational resources beyond the default per-user allocation of the Notebook Aspect submit scientific proposals to the Resource Allocation Committee.

Alert brokers

Alerts are packets of data for time-domain astronomical events (e.g., variable stars, explosive transients, moving objects). Alert brokers are independent software systems that filter and analyze the alert packets, and provide access to them via user interfaces. Alerts are transmitted by Rubin Observatory to alert brokers within 60 seconds of every new image obtained during the night.

For science goals that rely on real-time analysis and follow-up of time-domain events, it is necessary to access alerts via brokers.

Minor Planet Center (MPC)

All Rubin data for solar system objects is available via the Minor Planet Center (MPC; Rubin's observatory code is X05). A Rubin-only subset of MPC observations is maintained by the Asteroid Institute (a program of the B612 Foundation) at ls.st/ast.

Independent Data Access Centers (IDACs)

IDACs are data centers that serve LSST data sets in full or in part, but are not developed or maintained by Rubin staff and are not funded by the Rubin operations budget.

IDACs are typically motivated by one of the following descriptions.

• Serve other data sets, proprietary or public, alongside Rubin data.
• Host specific software, proprietary or public, for analysis of Rubin data.
• Provide hardware or computational resources, such as GPUs, for (re-)processing Rubin data.
• Support a more narrow range of science goals or geographic user base.

Read more about the motivation for IDACs in "Supporting Computational Science with Rubin LSST", RTN-060.

Resources for IDAC developers

• "Guidelines for Rubin Independent Data Access Centers", RTN-003
• "Proposed Policy for Independent Data Access Centers", LPM-251

Resources for IDAC users

• Users can request access to IDACs
• Find more information at In-Kind Program Computing Resources

Questions?