I’m working on the ANTARES event broker which we hope to be able to run with LSST. We’re updating our alert ingest code to be able to read an alert packet specified in the DPDD: https://docushare.lsstcorp.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/LSE-163/
Is there an actual test example for the alert packet that someone in DM can share publicly?
We’re particularly curious about the lcPeriodic and lcNonPeriodic features (which we know will likely change before release) since there are a matrix of floats with potentially missing values, and include some of the things that brokers will need for characterization, since this part of the specification is still a little vague.
Hi @gnarayan are you curious about that format or about the content? I’m not sure where to get a sample set of either, but it would help inform me what it is you want.
We don’t yet have a final format for the event packets. We have a prototype format and transport mechanism we are evaluating (see https://github.com/lsst-dm/sample-avro-alert and https://github.com/lsst-dm/alert_stream), but those are subject to change based on both technical considerations and community interactions (e.g., with the VO). We’re developing the process and timeline by when that will be finalized now.
There is no specification as yet as to what the lcPeriodic and lcNonPeriodic features are (let alone code to evaluate them). I believe the document was written assuming it would be the Richards et al. 2011 features, but if you have opinions I’m happy to hear them.
The content, @KSK. I followed the DPDD as closely as I could, and wrote a parser for the Alert Packages, and we’re upgrading our alert simulator infrastructure to also output the same format, so we can really start testing with something that looks like an LSST stream. Note that it doesn’t have to be final, but I did think it was a good place to check that what we were expecting wasn’t going to be too different from what the project is going to provide, since that will inform many API choices downstream.
@gnarayan Have you tried alertsim (https://github.com/lsst-sims/sims_alertsim)? It can be adjusted but basically makes a catsim query based on opsim pointings and transforms it to VOEvent stream which is then transmitted via tcp.
You will need an opsim db on your computer, open ssh tunnel to fatboy and a simple tcp receiver on your side to accept alerts. Please use transform_to_json branch, it will become master these days with some minor polishing. Contact me or @danielsf if you need more details or help running it.