Frameworks: Target and Observation Manager Systems for Multi-Messenger and Time Domain Science

目前和不久的将来，以美国为首的天文学调查提供了一个革命性的机会，可以通过多个信使和仪器探索物理现象，将引力波探测与中微子信号和电磁对应物联系起来。这一组合为天体物理学和物理学界的广泛研究提供了强大的新见解。这些调查的规模意味着，史无前例的PB级数据量及其快速传输必须得到有效管理，以充分实现其科学潜力，但仅凭这些数据不能完全表征这些发现。通常需要从具有补充仪器的设施进行额外的观测，但及时获得这些观测可能会给试图确定和确定感兴趣的时间敏感目标的研究人员以及这些设施的基础设施带来严重的技术挑战。创新的新软件工具使研究人员能够轻松地建立一个数据库，通过一个单一的编程界面管理他们科学项目的所有方面，包括进行观测。这些工具的能力正在扩大，以确保它们与其他快速发展的关键科学软件服务无缝结合，特别是进行后续观测的各种设施。这为许多里程碑式的调查提供了发现和表征链中的关键一环。然而，从历史上看，这种复杂的数据库驱动系统只适用于拥有内部软件团队的较大项目和机构。这使不公平地利用纳税人资助的主要设施的科学潜力的机会永久化。在该项目中将开发的被称为TOM(目标和观察管理器)工具包的文件良好的开源软件包，以及相关的社区发展计划，将使每个人都可以使用这些专业研究工具，包括教育工作者和公民科学家。确保研究人员能够迅速获得有关新发现的信息，管理和评估有关目标的所有相关数据，并及时有效地进行后续观测，这对于实现现代重大天文调查和飞行任务的科学潜力至关重要。只有当我们能够充分处理数据速率时，实时交付的PB级数据产品才有用。认识到这一点，已经投入了大量精力来生成调查数据产品，但大多数研究人员使用这些产品进行科学调查所使用的工具往往是文本文件、电子表格和其他应用程序的临时组合，这些应用程序不能很好地扩展，也不能与其他关键服务一起运行。大数据时代要求科学项目管理软件与现有服务(如发现警报中介和望远镜)对接，使科学家能够有效地整理与他们感兴趣的信息，并管理后续观测计划的所有方面。现代的、基于浏览器的数据探索和可视化工具支持各种科学，设计良好的公共软件可以确保研究人员将时间花在这些工具上，而不是反复重新发明它们。研究人员和软件工程师之间的合作关系确保了科学可以利用处理大数据已经成为标准的行业的最新发展。TOM软件包提供了这一关键的工具集，确保它与外地不断发展的服务保持完全整合，并扩展其能力以满足用户的需求。这个项目推进了NSF宇宙大理想之窗的目标。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Current and near-future U.S.-led astronomy surveys offer a revolutionary opportunity to explore physical phenomena through multiple messengers and instruments, associating gravitational wave detections with neutrino signatures and electromagnetic counterparts. The combination provides powerful new insights relevant to a broad range of research in the astrophysical and physics communities. The scale of these surveys means that unprecedented, petabyte scale data volumes and their rapid delivery must be managed effectively to fully realize their scientific potential, but these data alone cannot fully characterize the discoveries. Additional observations from facilities with complementary instrumentation are normally required, but obtaining these in a timely manner can present serious technical challenges, both to researchers trying to identify and characterize time-sensitive targets of interest, and to the infrastructure of these facilities. Innovative new software tools enable researchers to easily build a database to manage all aspects of their science projects, including conducting observations, through a single programmatic interface. The capabilities of these tools are expanding to ensure that they are seamlessly integrated with other, rapidly developing linchpin scientific software services, especially the range of facilities where follow-up observations are conducted. This provides a critical link in the chain of discovery and characterization for many landmark surveys. Yet historically, such sophisticated database-driven systems have only been available to larger projects and institutions with in-house software teams. This perpetuates inequitable access to the scientific potential of major taxpayer-funded facilities. The well-documented open source software package to be developed in this project, called the TOM (Target and Observation Manager) toolkit, and an associated community development program, will make these professional research tools accessible to everyone, including educators and citizen scientists. Ensuring that researchers can receive information on new discoveries rapidly, manage and evaluate all relevant data on targets of interest, and conduct follow-up observations in a timely and effective manner, is essential to realizing the scientific potential of modern major astronomical surveys and missions. Petabyte-scale data products, delivered in real-time, are useful only if we can adequately handle the data rate. Recognizing this, much effort has been invested in generating the survey data products, but the tools used by most researchers to do science investigations with these products are often an ad hoc combination of text files, spreadsheets and other applications that do not scale well and are not designed to operate with other key services. The Big Data era demands scientific project management software that interface with existing services, such as discovery alert brokers and telescopes, to enable scientists to effectively collate information relevant to their interests, and to manage all aspects of follow-up observing programs. Modern, browser-based data exploration and visualization tools enable a diverse range of science, and well-designed public software can ensure that researchers spend time using these tools for science instead of repeatedly re-inventing them. A partnership between researchers and software engineers ensures that science can take advantage of the latest developments from industries where handling Big Data is already standard. The TOM software package provides this critical tool set, ensures that it remains fully integrated with the evolving services in the field, and expands its capabilities to meet the needs of users. This project advances the goals of the NSF Windows on the Universe Big Idea.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.