ATLAS (survey)

ATLAS (survey)
Name	ATLAS (survey)
Type	Astronomical survey
Date started	2015
Observatory	United Kingdom Infrared Telescope
Instruments	Pan-STARRS1, Subaru Telescope, VISTA, VST
Wavelength	Optical, near-infrared
Area	All-sky (Southern hemisphere focus)
Data products	Light curves, transient alerts, survey catalogs

ATLAS (survey) is a wide-field astronomical survey focused on detecting transient and variable phenomena across the Southern sky. Operated by teams associated with institutions such as the University of Hawaii, the survey leverages facilities including the Pan-STARRS1 consortium, the Subaru Telescope partnership, and the VISTA collaboration to deliver rapid alerts and calibrated catalogs for follow-up by observatories like the European Southern Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The survey complements programs run by projects such as Zwicky Transient Facility, Catalina Sky Survey, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project, integrating with networks including the Transient Name Server and the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network.

Overview

The survey was conceived within communities represented by the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Astronomical Society, and the International Astronomical Union to address gaps identified by teams from the Siding Spring Observatory, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and the Mauna Kea Observatories. Early planning engaged groups from the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, and the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. The program operates alongside surveys led by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the California Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, with coordination involving the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the European Space Agency science operations. Partnered observatories such as the Anglo-Australian Telescope, the Keck Observatory, and the Gemini Observatory provide spectroscopic follow-up, while collaborations with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope team, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory team, and the Advanced LIGO Scientific Collaboration enable multi-messenger studies.

Survey Design and Instrumentation

The design incorporates cameras and detectors developed by consortia including the Pan-STARRS team, the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam group, and engineers from the UK Astronomy Technology Centre. Optics and filters were specified in consultation with staff at the European Southern Observatory, the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, and the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii. CCD arrays and readout electronics draw on heritage from projects such as the Dark Energy Survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys, with calibration standards referenced to catalogs produced by the Gaia mission, the Two Micron All Sky Survey team, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer collaboration. The instrument suite includes wide-field imagers analogous to those used by the VISTA consortium, the VLT Survey Telescope project, and the Subaru Telescope program, supported by control systems developed with input from the Space Science Telescope Institute and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Observational Campaign and Data Processing

Observations are scheduled and executed with systems influenced by the mission operations of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the James Webb Space Telescope planning tools. Nightly operations coordinate with weather and seeing forecasts from services used by the Mauna Kea Observatories, the European Southern Observatory, and the Sutherland site of the South African Astronomical Observatory. Image differencing and transient detection pipelines implement algorithms pioneered in collaborations such as the Zwicky Transient Facility, the Pan-STARRS Image Processing Pipeline, and the LSST Science Pipelines, with data reduction techniques validated against results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Dark Energy Survey, and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. Machine learning and classification efforts draw on frameworks used by teams at Google AI, the Flatiron Institute, and the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science, while archival storage strategies mirror practices at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, and the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive.

Scientific Goals and Key Results

Scientific aims were motivated by discoveries from the Advanced LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration on gravitational waves, from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on gamma-ray bursts, and from the Swift mission on X-ray transients. Primary goals include discovery of near-Earth objects and potentially hazardous asteroids identified by the Minor Planet Center, characterization of supernovae types studied by Carnegie Observatories and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and monitoring of tidal disruption events investigated by groups at the University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University. Key results have led to coordinated follow-up with teams at the European Southern Observatory, the Keck Observatory, and the Magellan Telescopes, enabling papers coauthored with researchers from the University of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Tokyo. The survey has produced rapid alerts that informed campaigns by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the Fermi team, and the LIGO-Virgo Scientific Collaboration, and contributed catalog-level measurements compared to outputs from Gaia, Pan-STARRS, and the Dark Energy Survey.

Data Release and Access

Data releases follow practices established by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, and the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, with products consumable by archives such as the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, and the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. Alert streams are disseminated through networks used by the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network, the Transient Name Server, and the VOEvent community, enabling rapid response from observatories including the European Southern Observatory, the Keck Observatory, and the Hubble Space Telescope. Catalog formats adhere to conventions employed by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance, the Virtual Observatory, and the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory, facilitating cross-matches with datasets from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Dark Energy Survey, and the Pan-STARRS1 database.

Legacy and Future Prospects

The legacy trajectory envisions integration with facilities and projects such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Square Kilometre Array, and the European Extremely Large Telescope, building on methodologies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Dark Energy Survey, and the Pan-STARRS projects. Future prospects include enhanced multi-messenger coordination with the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, the IceCube Collaboration, and the Cherenkov Telescope Array, and synergy with space missions like the James Webb Space Telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and the European Space Agency's Athena mission. The program's datasets are expected to remain valuable to researchers at institutions including the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, and the Centre for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

Category:Astronomical surveys