Data processing#
A high-level overview of the Prompt Processing steps which generated the data products.
Prompt data processing uses the LSST Science Pipelines.
Citation: Rubin Observatory Science Pipelines Developers (2025); The LSST Science Pipelines Software: Optical Survey Pipeline Reduction and Analysis Environment 
https://doi.org/10.71929/rubin/2570545 [BibTeX].
Important
Papers detailing the design and performance of the Alert Production and Solar System pipelines are in preparation.
Pipeline Overview#
A pipeline definition is deployed in Prompt Processing. It imports pipelines from ap_pipe. The pipeline yaml files may be found in Github.
A graph of the pipeline stages and intermediate data products may be found here. The resulting user-facing data products are described in the Data Products section.
Change log#
Unlike with the annual data releases which are associated with a given version of the LSST Science Pipelines, Prompt Processing software payloads are updated frequently.
The pipelines changelog shows recent changes to the Science Pipelines. Note that recently merged features may not immediately be deployed in Prompt Processing. The deployed pipelines are typically updated at least weekly.
Prompt processing#
Describes the data processing framework.
Single frame#
Processing and calibration of raw images into visit images.
Template generation#
Generates the template coadd images.
Difference image analysis#
Runs image subtraction to generate difference images and associated detection catalogs.
Source association#
Associates detections with astrophysical objects.
Filtering and Reliability Scoring#
Removing false positives.
Alert generation#
Creates and distributes alert packets to brokers.
Solar System processing#
Links detected sources into moving objects and generates Solar System catalogs.