Baseline Strategy#

The current baseline survey (v4.0) 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 uses slightly more than 80% 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 DDFs use around 7% of the total survey time.

  • “Target of Opportunity” (ToOs) observations. These are simulated ToOs, modeled after the expectations of the Rubin 2024 ToO workshop and consist of around 3% of total survey time.

The current baseline survey strategy is illustrated in the baseline_v4.0_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.