Using brokers to get solar system object alerts

Science Alerts & Brokers
#1

Hi, it’s really cool to see LSST alerts in the brokers! I’ve been trying to navigate the broker ecosystem today and I was hoping to get some advice from broker developers/users (apologies if I’ve missed some obvious documentation). How can I use a broker to get a list of alerts that have an ssObjectId over the past N nights? Better yet, is there a broker that I can filter on sso related alert values such as orbital parameters?

Having looked at some broker documentation I would assume that an Antares filter would be the most likely choice. I saw that there was relevant sso filters/tags for ZTF data (sso_confirmed, sso_candidates) but there does not appear to be equivalent filters/tags available for LSST data? Is this something that will be provided as part of the solar system object activity community alert filter or does this need to be developed independently?

I also looked at Fink which already provides excellent SSO information provided you have a name/designation to query. Is there anyway to make use of the Fink API, in particular /api/v1/tags, to query for objects tagged as SSO (i.e. ssObjectId is not null?). All I could find on the existing Fink filters is in this repo but there does not appear to be anything for SSOs.

There is also SNAPS but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information on a working website/API from the Rubin brokers page.

1 Like
#2

Hello Jamie!

How can I use a broker to get a list of alerts that have an ssObjectId over the past N nights?

The fast answer is Data Transfer in Fink!

  1. Select any nights
  2. Apply the block b_is_solar_system
  3. Select fields you want
  4. Stream!

Documentation is at Fink Data Transfer - Fink/LSST Documentation and service at Fink/Rubin Science Portal.

Better yet, is there a broker that I can filter on sso related alert values such as orbital parameters?

In the same Data Transfer service, you can add extra conditions. For example, SSO + semi major axis above 5 would express as:

image
image1354×795 107 KB

Now this is not real-time, nor API-based. In the spirit of what we do in ZTF, a LSST filter for SSO is coming. You’ll be able to stream data directly to you, and query the DB from the API as well. Stay tuned!

2 Likes