Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time
The upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to revolutionize solar system astronomy. Unprecedented in scale, this 10 yr wide-field survey will collect billions of observations and discover a predicted ∼5 million new solar system objects. Like all...
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2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/add3ec |
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| author | Stephanie R. Merritt Grigori Fedorets Megan E. Schwamb Samuel Cornwall Pedro H. Bernardinelli Mario Jurić Matthew J. Holman Jacob A. Kurlander Siegfried Eggl Drew Oldag Maxine West Jeremy Kubica Joseph Murtagh R. Lynne Jones Peter Yoachim Ryan R. Lyttle Michael S. P. Kelley Joachim Moeyens Kathleen Kiker Shantanu P. Naidu Colin Snodgrass Shannon M. Matthews Colin Orion Chandler |
| author_facet | Stephanie R. Merritt Grigori Fedorets Megan E. Schwamb Samuel Cornwall Pedro H. Bernardinelli Mario Jurić Matthew J. Holman Jacob A. Kurlander Siegfried Eggl Drew Oldag Maxine West Jeremy Kubica Joseph Murtagh R. Lynne Jones Peter Yoachim Ryan R. Lyttle Michael S. P. Kelley Joachim Moeyens Kathleen Kiker Shantanu P. Naidu Colin Snodgrass Shannon M. Matthews Colin Orion Chandler |
| author_sort | Stephanie R. Merritt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to revolutionize solar system astronomy. Unprecedented in scale, this 10 yr wide-field survey will collect billions of observations and discover a predicted ∼5 million new solar system objects. Like all astronomical surveys, its results will be affected by a complex system of intertwined detection biases. Survey simulators have long been used to forward-model the effects of these biases on a given population, allowing for a direct comparison to real discoveries. However, the scale and tremendous scope of the LSST requires the development of new tools. In this paper we present Sorcha , an open-source survey simulator written in Python . Designed with the scale of LSST in mind, Sorcha is a comprehensive survey simulator to cover all solar system small-body populations. Its flexible, modular design allows Sorcha to be easily adapted to other surveys by the user. The simulator is built to run both locally and on high-performance computing clusters, allowing for repeated simulation of millions to billions of objects (both real and synthetic). |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e152c8e4ff424cb29ec2ae6a6eeaf160 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1538-3881 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astronomical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-e152c8e4ff424cb29ec2ae6a6eeaf1602025-08-20T03:51:24ZengIOP PublishingThe Astronomical Journal1538-38812025-01-01170210010.3847/1538-3881/add3ecSorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and TimeStephanie R. Merritt0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5930-2829Grigori Fedorets1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8418-4809Megan E. Schwamb2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4365-1455Samuel Cornwall3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0672-5104Pedro H. Bernardinelli4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0743-9422Mario Jurić5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1996-9252Matthew J. Holman6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1139-4880Jacob A. Kurlander7https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5452-0671Siegfried Eggl8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1398-6302Drew Oldag9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6984-8411Maxine West10https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3171-3118Jeremy Kubica11https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2281-7031Joseph Murtagh12https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9505-1131R. Lynne Jones13https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5916-0031Peter Yoachim14https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2874-6464Ryan R. Lyttle15https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8602-2954Michael S. P. Kelley16https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6702-7676Joachim Moeyens17https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5820-3925Kathleen Kiker18Shantanu P. Naidu19https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4439-7014Colin Snodgrass20https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9328-2905Shannon M. Matthews21https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8633-9141Colin Orion Chandler22https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7335-1715Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UK ; m.schwamb@@qub.ac.ukAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UK ; m.schwamb@@qub.ac.uk; Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO, University of Turku , FI-20014 Turku, Finland; Department of Physics, University of Helsinki , P.O. Box 64, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UK ; m.schwamb@@qub.ac.ukDepartment of Aerospace Engineering, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USACenter for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, MA 02138, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USADepartment of Aerospace Engineering, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USA; National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USALSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USA; McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USAAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UK ; m.schwamb@@qub.ac.ukRubin Observatory , 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA; Aston Carter , Suite 150, 4321 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, BC V5C6S, CanadaDiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USAAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UK ; m.schwamb@@qub.ac.ukDepartment of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742-0001, USADiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Asteroid Institute , 20 Sunnyside Avenue, Suite 427, Mill Valley, CA 94941, USAAsteroid Institute , 20 Sunnyside Avenue, Suite 427, Mill Valley, CA 94941, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory , California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USAInstitute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UKAstrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN, UK ; m.schwamb@@qub.ac.ukDiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing Frameworks , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USAThe upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to revolutionize solar system astronomy. Unprecedented in scale, this 10 yr wide-field survey will collect billions of observations and discover a predicted ∼5 million new solar system objects. Like all astronomical surveys, its results will be affected by a complex system of intertwined detection biases. Survey simulators have long been used to forward-model the effects of these biases on a given population, allowing for a direct comparison to real discoveries. However, the scale and tremendous scope of the LSST requires the development of new tools. In this paper we present Sorcha , an open-source survey simulator written in Python . Designed with the scale of LSST in mind, Sorcha is a comprehensive survey simulator to cover all solar system small-body populations. Its flexible, modular design allows Sorcha to be easily adapted to other surveys by the user. The simulator is built to run both locally and on high-performance computing clusters, allowing for repeated simulation of millions to billions of objects (both real and synthetic).https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/add3ecSolar system astronomySmall Solar System bodiesAstronomy softwareAstronomical simulations |
| spellingShingle | Stephanie R. Merritt Grigori Fedorets Megan E. Schwamb Samuel Cornwall Pedro H. Bernardinelli Mario Jurić Matthew J. Holman Jacob A. Kurlander Siegfried Eggl Drew Oldag Maxine West Jeremy Kubica Joseph Murtagh R. Lynne Jones Peter Yoachim Ryan R. Lyttle Michael S. P. Kelley Joachim Moeyens Kathleen Kiker Shantanu P. Naidu Colin Snodgrass Shannon M. Matthews Colin Orion Chandler Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time The Astronomical Journal Solar system astronomy Small Solar System bodies Astronomy software Astronomical simulations |
| title | Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time |
| title_full | Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time |
| title_fullStr | Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time |
| title_short | Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time |
| title_sort | sorcha a solar system survey simulator for the legacy survey of space and time |
| topic | Solar system astronomy Small Solar System bodies Astronomy software Astronomical simulations |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/add3ec |
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