Simulation software

Code packages that are (or have been) used to model the Rubin Observatory from sky to detector and the survey strategy for the LSST.

Survey simulations

rubin_scheduler: Scheduling and simulating millions of observations for the LSST (DOI for v3.12.0).

rubin_sim: A framework for analyzing LSST survey strategies, and survey progress and outcomes (DOI for v2.2.4).

The latest baseline simulation, v5.0: DOI.

These code packages were previously referred to as the Operations Simulator (OpSim) and Metric Analysis Framework (MAF), respectively.

For anticipated image depths, see:

• "Updated estimates of the Rubin system throughput and expected LSST image depth", PSTN-054
• "Calculating LSST limiting magnitudes and SNR", SMTN-002

For the sky brightness model, see:

• "An optical to IR sky brightness model for the LSST", Yoachim et al, (2016)
• "An end-to-end simulation framework for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope", Connolly et al. (2014)

For the original MAF references, use:

• "The LSST metrics analysis framework (MAF)", Jones et al. (2014)
• "An end-to-end simulation framework for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope", Connolly et al. (2014)

Image simulations

Open-source software tools that are (or have been) used to simulate LSST images.

• ImSim: A software package to generate simulated images for LSSTCam, created and maintained by the Dark Energy Science Collaboration.
• PhoSim: Monte Carlo codes that calculate the physics of the atmosphere, and a telescope and camera, and simulate realistic astronomical images; Peterson et al. 2015.

Catalog simulations

• CatSim: This software to generate simulated astronomical catalogs has been moved into the rubin_sim package (see above).
  
• "Simulating the Legacy Survey of Space and Time Stellar Content with TRILEGAL", Dal Tio et al. (2022)
• "An end-to-end simulation framework for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope", Connolly et al. (2014)