Modeling and Simulation of Sky Survey

Kun Hu,Hongfei Wang,Wenzhao Zhang,Shengmao He,Yuohua Xu

doi:10.3390/app11167584

Abstract

Sky surveys with wide and deep field are the key direction of international astronomy research for the next decades. It is worthwhile to study how to design a sky survey algorithm to obtain the maximum scientific output in a limited period of observation. In this paper, the modeling and simulation of a wide and deep sky survey mission are presented using a Staged Design Algorithm (SDA), which takes into account the inefficient time periods and difficult-to-observe sky areas. In order to ensure the effective completion of the long-time survey observation tasks in large sky areas, a two-stage scheduling algorithm is designed. Firstly, the inefficient time periods and difficult observation areas are scheduled, and then the overall observation is carried out. The prearranged schedule is arranged when inefficient time periods or difficult areas are encountered during the overall arrangement. The simulation results are verified on the basic data of the China Space Station Telescope (CSST), and the obtained simulation result is three years ahead of the target of the telescope design to complete the wide and deep sky survey of 15,000 deg2. The design ideas in this paper not only have good results for sky survey observation but also can be extended to similar satellite Earth observation mission planning.

Highlights

IntroductionSky surveying has given a huge boost to the development of astronomy [1,2], and there are many internationally renowned surveys, such as Supernovae observations [3,4,5,6], Sloan Digital Sky Survey [7,8,9], Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) [10,11,12], Hubble
Algorithm proposed in this paper can complete the effective observation of sky areas and achieve the target of 15,000 deg2 of sky survey three years ahead of schedule
To solve the problems of incompleteness and deviation from the actual engineering tasks of existing studies on telescope survey optimization, this paper establishes a multiobjective model with complex constraints based on existing survey planning studies, which are split into observation constraints and orbit constraints, and designs a multi-stage greedy algorithm to solve it

Summary

Introduction

Sky surveying has given a huge boost to the development of astronomy [1,2], and there are many internationally renowned surveys, such as Supernovae observations [3,4,5,6], Sloan Digital Sky Survey [7,8,9], Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) [10,11,12], Hubble. Space Telescope (HST) [13,14,15], Euclid [16,17,18], Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) [19,20,21], and Planck [22,23], which have made a number of major scientific discoveries in astronomy, such as the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe [3].

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion