Over the last couple of years several questions about options for alert packet contents have arisen, mostly related to minimizing alert packet size and thus bandwidth usage.
The Rubin Observatory Data Management System Science Team has considered the options, and decided to make no changes to the overall alert packet contents at this time.
To summarize, the decisions are to:
- keep the alert history (past DiaSources)
- keep postage stamps and do not increase their size
- keep alert packets uncompressed
- keep all alert packets on the same schema, and
- flag and distribute delayed alerts as soon as possible.
For more information about the motivation, considerations, and decisions regarding the above options for alert packets, please see Data Management Tech Note (DMTN) 248, linked below.
Please reply in this thread with any questions.