Baseline Strategy

The current baseline survey (v3.4) consists of :

• “The Main Survey” - the Wide Fast Deep (WFD). This is the bulk of the survey, and is designed to achieve the core science goals of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The WFD could use up to 90% of the total survey time.

• “Mini” and “Micro” Surveys. These are small sub-surveys that cover a different area on the sky (such as the North Ecliptic Spur, Dusty Plane, or South Celestial Pole) or operate in a different observing ‘mode’ (such as the near-sun twilight survey). Minisurveys could use between 3-10% of the total survey time, while microsurveys might require 1-3% of the total survey time.

• “Deep Drilling Fields” (DDFs). These are single pointings (about 10 square degrees each), which receive intensive observations on a regular basis. Each DDF will reach at least 1 magnitude deeper than the WFD coadded depths.

The current baseline survey strategy is illustrated in the baseline_v3.4_10yrs simulation, although this (and any) simulation is limited in its representative status due to the fact that is a specific implementation under specific weather and observatory conditions.

• Wide Fast Deep (WFD)
• Mini-Surveys
• Deep Drilling Fields
• Micro Surveys
• Target of Opportunity (ToO)
• Updates to the baseline