IPAC Image Processing and Data Archiving for the Palomar Transient Factory

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a multiepochal robotic survey of the northern sky that acquires data for the scientific study of transient and variable astrophysical phenomena. The camera and telescope provide for wide-field imaging in optical bands. In the five years of operation since first light on 2008 December 13, images taken with Mould-R and SDSS-g′ camera filters have been routinely acquired on a nightly basis (weather permitting), and two different Hα filters were installed in 2011 May (656 and 663 nm). The PTF image-processing and data-archival program at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) is tailored to receive and reduce the data, and, from it, generate and preserve astrometrically and photometrically calibrated images, extracted source catalogs, and co-added reference images. Relational databases have been deployed to track these products in operations and the data archive. The fully automated system has benefited by lessons learned from past IPAC projects and comprises advantageous features that are potentially incorporable into other ground-based observatories. Both off-the-shelf and in-house software have been utilized for economy and rapid development. The PTF data archive is curated by the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). A state-of-the-art custom Web interface has been deployed for downloading the raw images, processed images, and source catalogs from IRSA. Access to PTF data products is currently limited to an initial public data release (M81, M44, M42, SDSS Stripe 82, and the Kepler Survey Field). It is the intent of the PTF collaboration to release the full PTF data archive when sufficient funding becomes available

Handbook of solar-terrestrial data systems, version 1

The interaction between the solar wind and the earth's magnetic field creates a large magnetic cavity which is termed the magnetosphere. Energy derived from the solar wind is ultimately dissipated by particle acceleration-precipitation and Joule heating in the magnetosphere-ionosphere. The rate of energy dissipation is highly variable, with peak levels during geomagnetic storms and substorms. The degree to which solar wind and magnetospheric conditions control the energy dissipation processes remains one of the major outstanding questions in magnetospheric physics. A conference on Solar Wind-Magnetospheric Coupling was convened to discuss these issues and this handbook is the result

Multi-messenger astronomy in the era of gravitational wave detections

From the first detection of gravitational waves, to the discovery of the optical counterpart to a binary neutron star merger, gravitational-wave multi-messenger astronomy has been a powerful driving force in the development of new large-scale optical sky surveys, techniques, and methods, seeking to exploit the powerful synergies this new way of looking at the Universe has unlocked. This thesis is a compilation of original work from across time-domain astronomy – with a common thread of applying statistical methods to large datasets to extract new conclusions. Chapters 3 and 6 fuse deep learning and databases to build high-performance, uncertainty-aware source classification algorithms for large-scale optical sky surveys, breaking new ground in integrating contextual information directly into deep-learned classifiers. Chapter 4 constructs a Bayesian inference pipeline for homogeneous reprocessing of over 20 years of high-resolution spectra of the principal continuous-wave source and cornerstone LMXB, Sco X-1 – delivering the most precise ephemerides for the system thus far to enable high-sensitivity searches for gravitational waves. Chapter 5 presents a search for short- timescale variability in supernova light curves, with the aim of providing novel constraints on the structuring and density of the circumstellar medium in these systems. Although null results were obtained, the data constrain the amplitude of and rate of occurrence of previously-observed fluctuations, and allow us to develop the techniques necessary to extend this study to a larger sample in future

The Transmission of Western Science Into China 1840-1900.

This thesis examines the process, practice and issues surrounding the transmission of Western science into China 1840-1900. It opens with a discussion of the previous (Jesuit) transmission of Western science, and the nature of the Chinese paradigms which the Jesuits tried to displace. The nineteenth-century Western chemical paradigms which were to be transmitted are then considered, together with the rapidly changing nature of the subject and the consequent problems for the translators and their readers. The context of the transmission in China is discussed, especially the nature of the kaozheng [evidential research] scholarly community in the Jiangnan region of China which, I hope to show, played an important role in the reception of science. The special problems of translation from Western languages into Chinese are then dealt with, including the transliteration of terms and the creation of new characters. Parallels are drawn with the methods of the Buddhist translators and of the early nineteenth-century Chinese geographers. There follow studies of the translation of chemical terminology, of a selection of important science textbooks, and of two Western agents of transmission, John Fryer and Calvin Mateer. The lives of Chinese scientists Li Shanlan, Xu Shou, Xu Jianyin and Hua Hengfang are studied, followed by a chapter on the new institutions which they and the Westerners created. The remarkably rich popular science literature such as Gezhi Huibian is then analysed, and conclusions drawn about the nature of 3 popular interest in science in this period. The intellectual impact of Western science in the last decade of the century is considered, especially the effects on the thinking of Tan Sitong and Kang Youwei. Finally, general conclusions are elaborated and the significance of the transmission is assessed

Aqua Granda Una memoria collettiva digitale / Aqua Granda A digital community memory

This book documents the project Aqua Granda, a digital community memory launched on 12 Novem- ber 2020 by the EU H2020 ODYCCEUS project and Science Gallery Venice. It contains background on the historical roots of digital community memories and on today’s role of social media and describes the meteorological phenomena that give rise to big floods in Venice and their impact on the architecture of the city. It details how a digital community memory has been set up about the Aqua Granda floods in Venice and documents the exhibition Navigating Aqua Granda, a digital community memory in which a number of ODYCCEUS scientists and artists show how they have explored this digital community memory to help create memorials for these devastating events

SPICA:revealing the hearts of galaxies and forming planetary systems : approach and US contributions

How did the diversity of galaxies we see in the modern Universe come to be? When and where did stars within them forge the heavy elements that give rise to the complex chemistry of life? How do planetary systems, the Universe's home for life, emerge from interstellar material? Answering these questions requires techniques that penetrate dust to reveal the detailed contents and processes in obscured regions. The ESA-JAXA Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) mission is designed for this, with a focus on sensitive spectroscopy in the 12 to 230 micron range. SPICA offers massive sensitivity improvements with its 2.5-meter primary mirror actively cooled to below 8 K. SPICA one of 3 candidates for the ESA's Cosmic Visions M5 mission, and JAXA has is committed to their portion of the collaboration. ESA will provide the silicon-carbide telescope, science instrument assembly, satellite integration and testing, and the spacecraft bus. JAXA will provide the passive and active cooling system (supporting the

The Apertif Surveys:The First Six Months

Apertif is a new phased-array feed for the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), greatly increasing its field of view and turning it into a natural survey instrument. In July 2019, the Apertif legacy surveys commenced; these are a time-domain survey and a two-tiered imaging survey, with a shallow and medium-deep component. The time-domain survey searches for new (millisecond) pulsars and fast radio bursts (FRBs). The imaging surveys provide neutral hydrogen (HI), radio continuum and polarization data products. With a bandwidth of 300 MHz, Apertif can detect HI out to a redshift of 0.26. The key science goals to be accomplished by Apertif include localization of FRBs (including real-time public alerts), the role of environment and interaction on galaxy properties and gas removal, finding the smallest galaxies, connecting cold gas to AGN, understanding the faint radio population, and studying magnetic fields in galaxies. After a proprietary period, survey data products will be publicly available through the Apertif Long Term Archive (ALTA, https://alta.astron.nl). I will review the progress of the surveys and present the first results from the Apertif surveys, including highlighting the currently available public data