Feedback loops from the Hubble Space Telescope data processing system

Dorothy A. Fraquelli; Richard Arquilla; Tracy Ellis; Forrest C. Hamilton; Albert Holm; Mark Kochte

doi:10.1117/12.460679

2 January 2002 Feedback loops from the Hubble Space Telescope data processing system

Dorothy A. Fraquelli, Richard Arquilla, Tracy Ellis, Forrest C. Hamilton, Albert Holm, Mark Kochte

Proceedings Volume 4844, Observatory Operations to Optimize Scientific Return III; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460679
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the history and technology by which tools placed in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data processing pipeline were used to feedback information on observation execution to the scheduling system and observers. Because the HST is in a relatively low orbit, which imposes a number of constraints upon its observations, it operates in a carefully planned, fully automated mode. To substitute for direct observer involvement available at most ground-based observatories and to provide rapid feedback on failures that might affect future visits, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) gradually evolved a system for screening science and engineering products during pipeline processing. The highly flexible HST data processing system (OPUS) allows tools to be introduced to use the content of FITS keywords to alert production staff to potential telescope and instrument performance failures. Staff members review the flagged data and, if appropriate, notify the observer and the scheduling staff so that they can resolve the problems and possibly repeat the failed observations. This kind of feedback loop represents a case study for other automated data collection systems where rapid response to certain quantifiable events in the data is required. Observatory operations staff can install processes to look for these events either in the production pipeline or in an associated pipeline into which the appropriate data are piped. That process can then be used to notify scientists to evaluate the data and decide upon a response or to automatically initiate a response.

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Dorothy A. Fraquelli, Richard Arquilla, Tracy Ellis, Forrest C. Hamilton, Albert Holm, and Mark Kochte "Feedback loops from the Hubble Space Telescope data processing system", Proc. SPIE 4844, Observatory Operations to Optimize Scientific Return III, (2 January 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460679

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KEYWORDS

Target acquisition

Data processing

Space telescopes

Feedback loops

Hubble Space Telescope

Observatories

Data archive systems

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