Contributed Computer Resources

Independent Data Access Centers (IDACs) and Scientific Processing Centers (SPCs)

One of the goals of the In-Kind Program is to augment the available resources for data- and compute-intensive use cases for the Rubin community. IDACs and SPCs, following the guidelines laid out by Rubin Observatory, will provide significant computing, storage, data, and experience for such use cases.

What kinds of contributed computing resources will be available?

IDACs and SPCs will collectively provide access to CPUs, data storage, databases, and GPUs.

Who has proposed computing resource contributions?

The table below lists the IDACs and SPCs expected to be active during Rubin Operations.

IDACs and SPCs

Program

Type

Contacts

United Kingdom

Data Facility (Full IDAC)

Bob Mann, George Beckett

Argentina

Lite IDAC

Mariano Dominguez, Diego Garcia

Australia

Lite IDAC

Jarrod Hurley, Sarah Brough, Stuart Ryder

Brazil

Lite IDAC

Carlos Adean, Luiz Da Costa, Julia Gschwend

Canada

Lite IDAC

Stephen Gwyn, Renee Hlozek, Wes Fraser

Croatia

SPC

Tomislav Jurkic, Lovro Palaversa

Denmark

Lite IDAC

Christa Gall, Radek Wojtak, Hans Kjeldsen

Japan

Lite IDAC (x2)

Hisanori Furusawa, Naoki Yasuda, Masahiro Takada, Satoshi Miyazaki, Yutaka Komiyama

Mexico

Lite IDAC

Octavio Valenzuela, Luis Arturo Arena-Lopez

Poland

Lite IDAC

Krzysztof Nawrocki, Agniezka Pollo, Pawel Pietrukowicz

Slovenia

Lite IDAC

Andrej Filipcic, Andreja Gomboc

Spain

Lite IDAC

Cristobal Padilla, Ramon Miquel, Nacho Sevilla

South Korea

Lite IDAC

Chang Hee Ree, Narae Hwang, Byeong-Gon Park

What data and services will be available?

This spreadsheet reflects the current plans for the Rubin data, services, and potential use cases to be supported at indivudual IDACs.

What are some potential uses of contributed computing resources?

The virtual workshop Supporting Computational Science with Rubin LSST, held in March 2023, featured discussion of a significant number of use cases submitted by members of the science community. Links to the use cases, presentations, recordings, notes, and background material are available on the workshop web page.

IDACs are considering a range of specific use cases, including time series analyses, solar system occultation predictions, and development of photometric redshift training sets, as well as general use. IDACs are also following the development of the use cases identified in the workshop “From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST”, and may adopt some of these as a basis for specific datasets and services.

When will IDACs and SPCs be available to the community?

As seen in this presentation, IDACs and SPCs are expected to start operations with the release of LSST DR1 sometime in 2026.

Want to know more?

The IDACs Coordination Group maintains a space on Community for discussion and sharing knowledge amongst IDACs and SPCs and their user communities. Join the conversation!