The 4 Pi Sky Transient Alerts Hub

Abstract

We introduce the 4 Pi Sky 'hub', a collection of open data-services and underlying software packages built for rapid, fully automated reporting and response to astronomical transient alerts. These packages build on the mature 'VOEvent' standardized message-format, and aim to provide a decentralized and open infrastructure for handling transient alerts. In particular we draw attention to the initial release of voeventdb, an archive and remote-query service that allows astronomers to make historical queries about transient alerts. By employing spatial filters and web-of-citation lookups, voeventdb enables cross-matching of transient alerts to bring together data from multiple sources, as well as providing a point of reference when planning new follow-up campaigns. We also highlight the recent addition of optical-transient feeds from the ASASSN and GAIA projects to our VOEvent distribution stream. Both the source-code and deployment-scripts which implement these services are freely available and permissively licensed, with the intention that other teams may use them to implement local or project-specific VOEvent archives. In the course of describing these packages we provide a basic primer for getting started with automated transient astronomy, including a condensed introduction to the VOEvent standard.

arXiv comment9 pages, 2 figures, 1 code-listing

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• The H.E.S.S. Gravitational Wave Rapid Follow-up Program
• Detailed multi-wavelength modelling of the dark GRB 140713A and its host galaxy
• Rapid-response radio observations of short GRB 181123B with the Australia Telescope Compact Array
• A VOEvent based automatic trigger system for the Murchison Widefield Array
• A search for fast radio burst-like emission from Fermi gamma-ray bursts
• A Search for Low-frequency Radio Pulses from Long Gamma-ray Bursts with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Realtime alerts of the transient sky on mobile devices