Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory: Realtime Image Subtraction Pipeline

Abstract

A fast-turnaround pipeline for realtime data reduction plays an essential role in discovering and permitting follow-up observations to young supernovae and fast-evolving transients in modern time-domain surveys. In this paper, we present the realtime image subtraction pipeline in the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory. By using high-performance computing, efficient database, and machine learning algorithms, this pipeline manages to reliably deliver transient candidates within ten minutes of images being taken. Our experience in using high performance computing resources to process big data in astronomy serves as a trailblazer to dealing with data from large-scale time-domain facilities in near future.

18 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in PASP

References in corpus (5)

• A Wolf-Rayet-like progenitor of supernova SN 2013cu from spectral observations of a wind
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Search Algorithm and Follow-up Observations
• Strong Ultraviolet Pulse From a Newborn Type Ia Supernova
• The rise of SN2014J in the nearby galaxy M82
• iPTF14yb: The First Discovery of a GRB Afterglow Independent of a High-Energy Trigger

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger
• Energetic eruptions leading to a peculiar hydrogen-rich explosion of a massive star
• iPTF Discovery of the Rapid "Turn On" of a Luminous Quasar
• The IPAC Image Subtraction and Discovery Pipeline for the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory
• iPTF16asu: A Luminous, Rapidly-Evolving, and High-Velocity Supernova
• iPTF17cw: An engine-driven supernova candidate discovered independent of a gamma-ray trigger
• A Machine Learning Classifier for Microlensing in Wide-Field Surveys
• Optical Transient Object Classification in Wide Field Small Aperture Telescopes with Neural Networks
• Preparing for advanced LIGO: A Star-Galaxy Separation Catalog for the Palomar Transient Factory
• Mary, a pipeline to aid discovery of optical transients
• The Palomar Transient Factory Sky2Night programme
• Machine Learning based search for Cataclysmic Variables within Gaia Science Alerts
• The Evryscope Fast Transient Engine: Real-Time Detection for Rapidly Evolving Transients
• iPTF 16asu Revisited: A Rapidly Evolving Superluminous Broad-Lined Ic Supernova?
• A systematic study of spiral density waves in the accretion discs of Cataclysmic Variables
• Detections of simultaneous brightening of gamma-ray and optical emissions of a distant blazar GB 1508+5714 at redshift 4.3
• Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Luminous Extragalactic Infrared Transients and Variables from the SPIRITS Survey
• AT 2016dah and AT 2017fyp: the first classical novae discovered within a tidal stream