Relay Observation Scheduling of Global Distributed Telescope Array Based on Integer Programming

Abstract

Abstract Certain transients require regular observations over several days at intervals of hours or shorter, which cannot be accomplished by telescopes at a single site. The deployment of globally distributed telescopes at geographic locations of different longitudes enables the periodic monitoring of transients through relay observation. However, the simultaneous relay observation of numerous targets requires a telescope array of multiple telescopes that can be efficiently coordinated, and an automated scheduler for the array. This paper proposes IPROS, an integer programming model relay observation scheduler for telescope array, that accounts for the entire process of relay observation and is consistent with the practical scenarios. We introduce the integer programming mathematical model for the relay observation scheduling problem with the telescope array, upon which the scheduler is based. Additionally, we propose an algorithm to provide a comprehensive formulation of the optimization objective of minimizing cadence deviation in the model. Experimental results demonstrate that the relay observation scheduler based on the integer programming model can effectively address the telescope array relay observation problem. It shows superiority over the scheduler with non-specific consideration of relay observation in the modeling and the scheduler based on greedy thought.