Kepler Science Operations processes, procedures, and tools

Abstract

The Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) is responsible for the configuration and management of the SOC Science Processing Pipeline, processing of the science data, distributing data and reports to the Science Office, exporting processed data for archiving to the Data Management Center at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and generation and management of the target and aperture definitions. We present an overview of the SOC procedures and workflows for the data the SOC manages and processes. There are several levels of reviews, approvals, and processing for the various types of data. We describe the process flow from data receipt through data processing and export, as well as the procedures in place for accomplishing the tasks. The tools used to accomplish the goals of <i>Kepler</i> science operations will be presented and discussed as well. These include command-line tools and graphical user interfaces, as well as commercial products. The tools provide a wide range of functionality for the SOC including pipeline operation, configuration management, and process workflow implementation. For a demonstration of the Kepler Science Operations Center's processes, procedures, and tools, we present the life of a quarter's worth of data, from target and aperture table generation through archiving the data collected with those tables.