Questions regarding MOPS asteroid linking algorithm and whether broken links are represented in DP03

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#1

Hi all,

Hope this message finds you well! I had a few questions regarding the handling of linking asteroid observations in live Rubin observations as well as in DP03, specifically:

  1. What linking algorithm(s) is/are going to be used in the Moving Object Processing System? Will it be HelioLinc3D GitHub - lsst-dm/heliolinc2: Solar System Processing using HelioLinC2 algorithm, or a different algorithm (such as KBMOD, or another)?

  2. Are there any examples of Solar System bodies with broken links in the DP03 data set? (I.e., are there examples where two or more ssObjectIds represent different observations of the same object)?

Thank you so much for any thoughts you might have on either or both of the questions above!

#2

Thanks for your questions, @ewhite42.

  1. You are correct that the HelioLinC3D software package will be used for tracklet linking and orbit fitting for Rubin. There’s a description of the linking process in the DP0.3 documentation.
  2. The DP0.3 data set is composed of catalogs containing real and simulated solar system and interstellar objects. You can find more information in the DP0.3 Simulation documentation, including a list of known issues with the simulated data set. No cases of broken links as you describe have been reported in DP0.3.
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#3

Thank you so much @sgreenstreet for the extremely helpful information! I really appreciate it! I have marked your answer as the solution since that answered the questions above, but I hope it is ok to ask a follow up question? If so, I was just curious – do you know what range of parameters (gamma, gamma_dot, d, and dt in Holman et al 2018) is going to be implemented in the active version of HelioLinC3D on MOPS? Again many thanks for your time and help! :slight_smile: