LSST Data Products: Enabling LSST Science

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST; http://lsst.org) is a planned, large-aperture, wide-field, ground-based telescope that will survey half the sky every few nights in six optical bands from 320 to 1050 nm. It will explore a wide range of astrophysical questions, from studies of the Solar System, to examining the nature of dark energy. LSST is an integrated survey system. The observatory, telescope, camera and data management systems will be built to conduct the LSST survey and will not support 'PI mode' in the classical sense. Instead, the ultimate, science-enabling, deliverable of LSST will be the fully reduced data. This poster presents the baseline design and contents of LSST data products. There will be three main categories. "Level 1" data products will be generated continuously every observing night and include measurements such as alerts to objects that have changed brightness or position. They will be broadcast world-wide using VO protocols. "Level 2" data products will be made available as annual Data Releases and will include images and measurements of quantities such as positions, fluxes, and shapes, as well as variability information such as orbital parameters for moving objects and an appropriate compact description of light curves. The exact contents of Level 2 products will be set by the desire to minimize the necessity to independently reprocess the image data. Finally, approximately 10% of LSST's computing capability will be made available to the community for generation of "Level 3" data products. These will be used to perform custom analyses not fully enabled by Level 1/2, while taking advantage of co-location of computation with the entire LSST data set.