Procedures for Constraining Robotic Fiber Positioning for Highly Multiplexed Spectroscopic Surveys: The Case of FPS for SDSS-V

Abstract One crucial aspect of planning any large scale astronomical survey is constructing an observing strategy that maximizes reduced data quality. This is especially important for surveys that are rather heterogeneous and broad-ranging in their science goals. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V), which now utilizes the Focal Plane System (FPS) to robotically place fibers that feed the spectrographs, certainly meets these criteria. The addition of the FPS facilitates an increase in survey efficiency, number of targets, and target diversity, but also means the positions of fibers must be constrained to allow for simultaneous observations of sometimes competing programs. The constraints on the positions of the fibers are clearly driven by properties of the science targets, e.g., the type of target, brightness of the target, position of the target relative to others in the field, etc. The parameters used to describe these constraints will also depend on the intended science goal of the observation, which will vary with the types of objects requested for the particular observation and the planned sky conditions for the observation. In this work, we detail the SDSS-V data collection scenarios, which consist of sets of parameters that serve as the framework for constraining fiber placements. The numerical values of these parameters were set based on either past experiences or from a series of new tests, which we describe in detail here. These parameters allow a survey like SDSS-V to be algorithmically planned to maximize the science output, while guaranteeing data quality throughout its operation.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Published
2025-10-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ae03b2
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.19
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article

Procedures for Constraining Robotic Fiber Positioning for Highly Multiplexed Spectroscopic Surveys: The Case of FPS for SDSS-V

Joleen K. Carlberg, Sean Morrison, Héctor J. Ibarra-Medel, Ilija Medan et al.
1 citations
The Astronomical Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
1.19
article

Procedures for Constraining Robotic Fiber Positioning for Highly Multiplexed Spectroscopic Surveys: The Case of FPS for SDSS-V

Joleen K. Carlberg, Sean Morrison, Héctor J. Ibarra-Medel, Ilija Medan, Conor Sayres, Alexander P. Ji, John Donor, T. Dwelly, Yue Shen, Michael R. Blanton, Kevin R. Covey, José Sánchez-Gallego, Eleonora Zari, Keivan G. Stassun, S. Drew Chojnowski
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract One crucial aspect of planning any large scale astronomical survey is constructing an observing strategy that maximizes reduced data quality. This is especially important for surveys that are rather heterogeneous and broad-ranging in their science goals. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V), which now utilizes the Focal Plane System (FPS) to robotically place fibers that feed the spectrographs, certainly meets these criteria. The addition of the FPS facilitates an increase in survey efficiency, number of targets, and target diversity, but also means the positions of fibers must be constrained to allow for simultaneous observations of sometimes competing programs. The constraints on the positions of the fibers are clearly driven by properties of the science targets, e.g., the type of target, brightness of the target, position of the target relative to others in the field, etc. The parameters used to describe these constraints will also depend on the intended science goal of the observation, which will vary with the types of objects requested for the particular observation and the planned sky conditions for the observation. In this work, we detail the SDSS-V data collection scenarios, which consist of sets of parameters that serve as the framework for constraining fiber placements. The numerical values of these parameters were set based on either past experiences or from a series of new tests, which we describe in detail here. These parameters allow a survey like SDSS-V to be algorithmically planned to maximize the science output, while guaranteeing data quality throughout its operation.

The Astronomical JournalVol. 170(5)
Ames Research Center (US), Texas Christian University (US), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US), Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México (MX), Vanderbilt University (US), University of Washington (US), University of Chicago (US), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE), Institute of Particle Physics (CA), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze (IT), National Center for Supercomputing Applications (US), University of Florence (IT), Western Washington University (US), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX)
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
1.19
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