Frameworks: SCiMMA: Real-time Orchestration of Multi-Messenger Astrophysical Observations

在引力波（GW170817）中探测到的第一颗中子星合并，相关的伽马射线暴和千新星余辉，打开了一扇新的窗口，揭示了对天体物理学许多领域的见解，包括恒星演化、中子星状态方程、宇宙学、核合成、重元素的不透明性、伽马射线暴和喷射物理、星系演化、广义相对论的检验等等。这只是多信使天体物理学（MMA）力量的一个例子，在MMA中，电磁信息以完全不同的方式与感知宇宙相结合，要么通过探测粒子，要么通过引力波。综合格斗赛事带来了独特的挑战——将以前孤立的团体聚集在一起，需要不同子领域之间的标准化、快速反应和有限资源的全球协调。这需要对目前使用的过时的通信基础设施进行彻底改革，相对适度的投资可以在数十亿美元的实验中产生巨大的效率收益，例如LIGO-VIRGO-Kagra （LVK）合作，冰立方中微子实验和Vera C. Rubin天文台。SCIMMA团队正在开发基础设施，将这些孤立的设施及其数据实时汇集在一起，首次实现协调的国家天体物理生态系统。这个基础设施将提高识别引力波、高能粒子和中微子实验的电磁对应体的效率，允许在高能物理学和天文学的交叉点上有更多的新发现，并提供探索引力本身本质的新方法。在之前的工作中，SCIMMA团队调查了社区并开发了满足他们需求的工具，例如Hopskotch，这是一个健壮、快速且可扩展的基于kafka的消息传递系统。在此基础上，SCIMMA分层了Hopskotch支持的实时消息服务（HERMES），这是一个基于web的图形用户界面和相关的API。这解决了标准化的问题，而且使用简单（不需要安装软件），但又足够复杂，可以通过api实现新的自动化类型。通过Hopskotch框架和HERMES服务，SCIMMA汇集了不同的设施网络，在LVK第四次观测运行期间及以后协调后续工作。HERMES融合了人类和机器的可读性，这是机器人和基于队列的望远镜所缺少的基础设施的关键部分，而这些望远镜对于MMA事件的快速跟踪至关重要。Hopskotch正在使用中，并已成为LIGO内部使用的关键，包括在O4观测运行中分发LIGO- virgo - kagra （LVK）警报。SCIMMA正在将Hopskotch从原型带到生产状态，并根据社区的要求添加新功能。新功能包括将LVK与冰立方等粒子探测器连接起来，冰立方又将与地面观测设施（如即将到来的Vera C. Rubin天文台）连接并相互连接。这是建立在天体物理多信使观测站网络（AMON）和天文事件观测站网络（AEON）等协会的基础上的。这些努力包括：(1)一个开发团队，以确保持续的正常运行时间、安全性和收集反馈；(2)升级身份及访问管理系统，允许私人主题，以便子团队可以使用相同的基础设施进行通信，就像在公共系统上一样；(3) Hopskotch和HERMES的持续发展，使其从原型发展成为行业领先的通信和标准化工具；(4)对接现有的基础设施，包括天文设施，以及NASA GCNs、瞬态名称服务器、藏宝图、代理和TOM工具包等服务。总之，这些改进减少了观测中的冗余，允许更快速和频繁地发现电磁对应，并使观测站更有效率。此外，HERMES降低了较小或资源较差的社区面临的进入门槛。SCIMMA的目标是让全球每个人都能实时访问MMA事件的所有相关公共数据，使所有研究人员更容易促进发现，从而使科学民主化。该项目推进了“宇宙之窗：多信使天体物理学时代”的目标，这是美国国家科学基金会未来投资的十大理念之一。该奖项由高级网络基础设施办公室颁发，由天文科学部和物理部信息前沿项目的物理部联合支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The first neutron star merger detected in gravitational waves (GW170817), the associated prompt gamma ray burst, and kilonova afterglow, opened a new window on the universe revealing insights into many areas of astrophysics, including stellar evolution, the neutron star equation-of-state, cosmology, nucleosynthesis, the opacity of heavy elements, gamma-ray burst and jet physics, galactic evolution, tests of general relativity, and more. This is but one example of the power of multimessenger astrophysics (MMA), where electromagnetic information is combined with sensing the universe in completely different ways, either through the detections of particles or gravitational waves. MMA events present unique challenges - bringing together previously siloed groups and requiring standardization between different subfields, rapid response, and global coordination of limited resources. This necessitates an overhaul in the outdated communications infrastructure currently employed, where a relatively modest investment can produce huge gains in the efficiency of billion-dollar investments for experiments such as the LIGO-VIRGO-Kagra (LVK) collaboration, the IceCube Neutrino Experiment, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The SCIMMA team is developing the infrastructure to bring together these siloed facilities and their data in real-time, enabling for the first time a coordinated national astrophysical ecosystem. This infrastructure will improve the efficiency of identifying the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves, high energy particle and neutrino experiments, permitting more novel discoveries at the intersection of high-energy physics and astronomy, and providing new ways to probe the nature of gravity itself.In previous work, the SCIMMA team surveyed the community and developed tools to serve their needs, such as Hopskotch, a robust, rapid, and scalable Kafka-based messaging system. On top of that SCIMMA has layered the Hopskotch Enabled Real-time Messaging Service (HERMES), a web-based graphical user interface and associated API. This solves the problem of standardization and is both simple to use (no software needs to be installed), and yet complex enough to achieve new kinds of automation through APIs. With the Hopskotch framework and HERMES service, SCIMMA brings together a disparate network of facilities, orchestrating follow-up during the LVK fourth observing run and beyond. HERMES blends human and machine readability, a critical piece of missing infrastructure necessary for the robotic and queue-based telescopes that are essential for the rapid follow-up of MMA events. Hopskotch is in use, and has become critical for internal LIGO use, including the distribution of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) alerts in the O4 observing run. SCIMMA is taking Hopskotch from a prototype to a production state and adding new features as requested by the community. New features include connecting LVK to particle detectors such as IceCube, which in turn will be connected to and interconnect ground-based observing facilities such as the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This builds on associations like the Astrophysical Multi-messenger Observatory Network (AMON), and the Astronomical Event Observatory Network (AEON). These efforts include: (1) a devops team to insure continuous uptime, security, and gather feedback; (2) upgrades to the Identity and Access Management system to allow private topics so that sub-teams can use the same infrastructure to communicate as they would on the public system; (3) the continued development of Hopskotch and HERMES to take it from prototype to an industry-leading communications and standardization tool; (4) interfacing with existing infrastructure, both astronomical facilities, as well as services such as NASA GCNs, the Transient Name Server, Treasure Map, brokers, and the TOM Toolkit. Together, these improvements reduce redundancy in observations, allow for more rapid and frequent discovery of electromagnetic counterparts, and make observatories more efficient. Additionally, HERMES lowers the barriers to entry faced by smaller or less well-resourced communities. SCIMMA’s aim is to give everyone across the globe streamlined real-time access to all the relevant public data for MMA events to make it increasingly easier for all researchers to facilitate discovery, thereby democratizing science.This project advances the objectives of "Windows on the Universe: the Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics", one of the 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments.This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the Division of Astronomical Sciences and the Physics at the Information Frontier program in the Division of Physics within the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.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.