Skip to main content
Log in

A robotic pipeline for fast GRB followup with the Las Cumbrés observatory network

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Experimental Astronomy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the era of multi-messenger astronomy the exploration of the early emission from transients is key for understanding the encoded physics. At the same time, current generation networks of fully-robotic telescopes provide new opportunities in terms of fast followup and sky coverage. This work describes our pipeline designed for robotic optical followup of gamma-ray bursts with the Las Cumbrés Observatory network. We designed a Python code to promptly submit observation requests to the Las Cumbrés Observatory network within 3 minutes of the receipt of the socket notice. Via Telegram the pipeline keeps the users informed, allowing them to take control upon request. Our group was able to track the early phases of the evolution of the optical output from gamma-ray bursts with a fully-robotic procedure and here we report the case of GRB180720B as an example. The developed pipeline represents a key ingredient for any reliable and rapid (minutes timescale) robotic telescope system. While successfully utilized and adapted for LCO, it can also be adapted to any other robotic facilities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. https://lco.global

  2. Faulkes Telescope South (FTS)

  3. Faulkes Telescope North (FTN)

  4. https://lco.global/observatory/instruments/spectral/

  5. https://lco.global/observatory/instruments/floyds/

  6. https://lco.global/observatory/instruments/sinistro/

  7. https://lco.global/observatory/instruments/nres/

  8. https://weather.lco.global/#/bpl (weather) https://lco.global/observatory/status/(instruments status)

  9. https://observe.lco.global/create/

  10. https://developers.lco.global/?python#introduction

  11. https://developers.lco.global/#get-related-frames

  12. https://github.com/kobe90/LCO_pipeline

  13. The system of Notices and Circulars is described at https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov

  14. https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/w3browse/all/ipngrb.html

  15. https://www.json.org

  16. https://github.com/lpsinger/pygcn

  17. http://www.ivoa.net/documents/Notes/VOEventTransport/

  18. https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/filtering.html.

  19. https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/swift.html

  20. https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/integral.html

  21. https://github.com/kbarbary/sfdmap

  22. https://developers.lco.global/?python#retrieve-weather.

  23. Examples are available at https://developers.lco.global/?python#telescope-states.

  24. Some templates are available: https://developers.lco.global/?python#proposals.

  25. https://telegram.org

  26. https://github.com/python-telegram-bot/python-telegram-bot

  27. http://www.swift.ac.uk/analysis/uvot/filters.php

  28. https://observe.lco.global/create/

  29. https://developers.lco.global/?python#observations

  30. https://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/grb_table/

  31. Please note that we used a slightly different procedure in this case, being in a first testing phase. The main differences where:

    • we used a 7-minutes waiting time for the UVOT counterpart;

    • we submitted a slightly different “blind” observation request, composed by 5 exposure of 120s in the i’ filter.

  32. The pipeline flagged the burst as promptly visible from Haleakala, but a few minutes later the burst became observable from Siding Spring, too. According to internal rules, the scheduler finally decided to convey our observation request towards Siding Spring, that finally performed the observation.

References

  1. Klebesadel, R.W., Strong, I.B., Olson, R.A.: . Astrophys. J. Lett. 182, L85 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1086/181225

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Woosley, S.E.: Models for gamma-ray burst progenitors and central engines (gamma-ray bursts). Cambridge Astrophys. Series 51, 191 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Lipunov, V.M., Postnov, K.A., Prokhorov, M.E., Panchenko, I.E., Jorgensen, H.E.: . Astrophys. J. 454, 593 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1086/176512

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Abbott, B.P., Abbott, R., Abbott, T.D., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., Adams, T., Addesso, P., Adhikari, R.X., Adya, V.B., et al: . Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L12 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Eichler, D., Livio, M., Piran, T., Schramm, D.N.: . Nature 340, 126 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/340126a0

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Paczynski, B.: . Acta Astronomica 41, 257 (1991)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Narayan, R., Paczynski, B., Piran, T.: . ApJ 395, L83 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1086/186493

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. van Paradijs, J., Groot, P.J., Galama, T., Kouveliotou, C., Strom, R.G., Telting, J., Rutten, R.G.M., Fishman, G.J., Meegan, C.A., Pettini, M., Tanvir, N., Bloom, J., Pedersen, H., Nørdgaard-Nielsen, H.U., Linden-Vørnle, M., Melnick, J., Van der Steene, G., Bremer, M., Naber, R., Heise, J., in’t Zand, J., Costa, E., Feroci, M., Piro, L., Frontera, F., Zavattini, G., Nicastro, L., Palazzi, E., Bennett, K., Hanlon, L., Parmar, A.: . Nature 386, 686 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/386686a0

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Akerlof, C., Balsano, R., Barthelmy, S., Bloch, J., Butterworth, P., Casperson, D., Cline, T., Fletcher, S., Frontera, F., Gisler, G., Heise, J., Hills, J., Kehoe, R., Lee, B., Marshall, S., McKay, T., Miller, R., Piro, L., Priedhorsky, W., Szymanski, J., Wren, J.: . Nature 398(6726), 400 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/18837

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gehrels, N., Chincarini, G., Giommi, P., Mason, K.O., Nousek, J.A., Wells, A.A., White, N.E., Barthelmy, S.D., Burrows, D.N., Cominsky, L.R., Hurley, K.C., Marshall, F.E., Mészáros, P., Roming, P.W.A., Angelini, L., Barbier, L.M., Belloni, T., Campana, S., Caraveo, P.A., Chester, M.M., Citterio, O., Cline, T.L., Cropper, M.S., Cummings, J.R., Dean, A.J., Feigelson, E.D., Fenimore, E.E., Frail, D.A., Fruchter, A.S., Garmire, G.P., Gendreau, K., Ghisellini, G., Greiner, J., Hill, J.E., Hunsberger, S.D., Krimm, H.A., Kulkarni, S.R., Kumar, P., Lebrun, F., Lloyd-Ronning, N.M., Markwardt, C.B., Mattson, B.J., Mushotzky, R.F., Norris, J.P., Osborne, J., Paczynski, B., Palmer, D.M., Park, H.S., Parsons, A.M., Paul, J., Rees, M.J., Reynolds, C.S., Rhoads, J.E., Sasseen, T.P., Schaefer, B.E., Short, A.T., Smale, A.P., Smith, I.A., Stella, L., Tagliaferri, G., Takahashi, T., Tashiro, M., Townsley, L.K., Tueller, J., Turner, M.J.L., Vietri, M., Voges, W., Ward, M.J., Willingale, R., Zerbi, F.M., Zhang, W.W.: . ApJ 611, 1005 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1086/422091

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Akerlof, C.W., Kehoe, R.L., McKay, T.A., Rykoff, E.S., Smith, D.A., Casperson, D.E., McGowan, K.E., Vestrand, W.T., Wozniak, P.R., Wren, J.A., Ashley, M.C.B., Phillips, M.A., Marshall, S.L., Epps, H.W., Schier, J.A.: . Publ. ASP 115(803), 132 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1086/345490

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Lipunov, V., Kornilov, V., Gorbovskoy, E., Shatskij, N., Kuvshinov, D., Tyurina, N., Belinski, A., Krylov, A., Balanutsa, P., Chazov, V., Kuznetsov, A., Kortunov, P., Sankovich, A., Tlatov, A., Parkhomenko, A., Krushinsky, V., Zalozhnyh, I., Popov, A., Kopytova, T., Ivanov, K., Yazev, S., Yurkov, V.: . Adv. Astron. 2010, 349171 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/349171

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Boër, M., Bringer, M., Klotz, A., Moly, A.M., Toublanc, D., Calvet, G., Eysseric, J., Leroy, A., Meissonnier, M., Malina, R., Sanchez, P., Pollas, C., Pedersen, H.: . Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 138, 579 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1051/aas:1999356

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Castro-Tirado, A.J., Soldán, J., Bernas, M., Páta, P., Rezek, T., Hudec, R., Mateo Sanguino, T.J., de La Morena, B., Berná, J.A., Rodríguez, J., Peña, A., Gorosabel, J., Más-Hesse, J.M., Giménez, A.: . Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 138, 583 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1051/aas:1999362

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Steele, I.A., Smith, R.J., Rees, P.C., Baker, I.P., Bates, S.D., Bode, M.F., Bowman, M.K., Carter, D., Etherton, J., Ford, M.J., Fraser, S.N., Gomboc, A., Lett, R.D.J., Mansfield, A.G., Marchant, J.M., Medrano-Cerda, G.A., Mottram, C.J., Raback, D., Scott, A.B., Tomlinson, M.D., Zamanov, R. In: Oschmann, J.M. Jr. (ed.) Ground-based Telescopes, Proceedings of the SPIE, vol. 5489, pp 679–692 (2004), https://doi.org/10.1117/12.551456

  16. Tsapras, Y., Street, R., Horne, K., Snodgrass, C., Dominik, M., Allan, A., Steele, I., Bramich, D.M., Saunders, E.S., Rattenbury, N., Mottram, C., Fraser, S., Clay, N., Burgdorf, M., Bode, M., Lister, T.A., Hawkins, E., Beaulieu, J.P., Fouqué, P., Albrow, M., Menzies, J., Cassan, A., Dominis-Prester, D.: . Astronomische Nachrichten 330, 4 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.200811130

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Lewis, F., Street, R., Roche, P., Stroud, V., Russell, D.M.: . Adv. Astron. 2010, 873059 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/873059

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Monfardini, A., Kobayashi, S., Guidorzi, C., Carter, D., Mundell, C.G., Bersier, D.F., Gomboc, A., Melandri, A., Mottram, C.J., Smith, R.J., Steele, I.A.: . Astrophys. J. 648, 1125 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1086/506170

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Mundell, C.G., Melandri, A., Guidorzi, C., Kobayashi, S., Steele, I.A., Malesani, D., Amati, L., D’Avanzo, P., Bersier, D.F., Gomboc, A., Rol, E., Bode, M.F., Carter, D., Mottram, C.J., Monfardini, A., Smith, R.J., Malhotra, S., Wang, J., Bannister, N., O’Brien, P.T., Tanvir, N.R.: . ApJ 660, 489 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1086/512605

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Melandri, A., Mundell, C.G., Kobayashi, S., Guidorzi, C., Gomboc, A., Steele, I.A., Smith, R.J., Bersier, D., Mottram, C.J., Carter, D., Bode, M.F., O’Brien, P.T., Tanvir, N.R., Rol, E., Chapman, R.: . ApJ 686, 1209 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1086/591243

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Virgili, F.J., Mundell, C.G., Pal’shin, V., Guidorzi, C., Margutti, R., Melandri, A., Harrison, R., Kobayashi, S., Chornock, R., Henden, A., Updike, A.C., Cenko, S.B., Tanvir, N.R., Steele, I.A., Cucchiara, A., Gomboc, A., Levan, A., Cano, Z., Mottram, C.J., Clay, N.R., Bersier, D., Kopač, D., Japelj, J., Filippenko, A.V., Li, W., Svinkin, D., Golenetskii, S., Hartmann, D.H., Milne, P.A., Williams, G., O’Brien, P.T., Fox, D.B., Berger, E.: . ApJ 778, 54 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/778/1/54

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Kopač, D., Mundell, C.G., Japelj, J., Arnold, D.M., Steele, I.A., Guidorzi, C., Dichiara, S., Kobayashi, S., Gomboc, A., Harrison, R.M., Lamb, G.P., Melandri, A., Smith, R.J., Virgili, F.J., Castro-Tirado, A.J., Gorosabel, J., Järvinen, A., Sánchez-Ramírez, R., Oates, S.R., Jelínek, M: . ApJ 813, 1 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/813/1/1

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Gomboc, A., Kobayashi, S., Guidorzi, C., Melandri, A., Mangano, V., Sbarufatti, B., Mundell, C.G., Schady, P., Smith, R.J., Updike, A.C., Kann, D.A., Misra, K., Rol, E., Pozanenko, A., Castro-Tirado, A.J., Anupama, G.C., Bersier, D., Bode, M.F., Carter, D., Curran, P., Fruchter, A., Graham, J., Hartmann, D.H., Ibrahimov, M., Levan, A., Monfardini, A., Mottram, C.J., O’Brien, P.T., Prema, P., Sahu, D.K., Steele, I.A., Tanvir, N.R., Wiersema, K.: . ApJ 687, 443 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1086/592062

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Gomboc, A., Kobayashi, S., Mundell, C.G., Guidorzi, C., Melandri, A., Steele, I.A., Smith, R.J., Bersier, D., Carter, D., Bode, M.F. In: Meegan, C., Kouveliotou, C., Gehrels, N. (eds.) American Institute of Physics Conference Series, American Institute of Physics Conference Series, vol. 1133, pp 145–150 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3155867

  25. Japelj, J., Kopač, D., Kobayashi, S., Harrison, R., Guidorzi, C., Virgili, F.J., Mundell, C.G., Melandri, A., Gomboc, A.: . ApJ 785, 84 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/785/2/84

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Laskar, T., Alexander, K.D., Berger, E., Fong, W.f., Margutti, R., Shivvers, I., Wlliams, P.K.G, Kopač, D., Kobayashi, S., Mundell, C., Gomboc, A., Zheng, W., Menten, K.M., Graham, M.L., Filippenko, A.V.: . Astrophys. J. 833, 88 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/833/1/88

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Laskar, T., Alexander, K.D., Berger, E., Guidorzi, C., Margutti, R., Fong, W.f., Kilpatrick, C.D., Milne, P., Drout, M.R., Mundell, C.G., Kobayashi, S., Lunnan, R., Barniol Duran, R., Menten, K.M., Ioka, K., W.lliams, P.K.G: . Astrophys. J. 862, 94 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aacbcc

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Mundell, C.G., Steele, I.A., Smith, R.J., Kobayashi, S., Melandri, A., Guidorzi, C., Gomboc, A., Mottram, C.J., Clarke, D., Monfardini, A., Carter, D., Bersier, D.: . Science 315, 1822 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138484

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Steele, I.A., Mundell, C.G., Smith, R.J., Kobayashi, S., Guidorzi, C.: . Nature 462, 767 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08590

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Mundell, C.G., Kopac, D., Arnold, D.M., Steele, I.A., Gomboc, A., Kobayashi, S., Harrison, R.M., Smith, R.J., Guidorzi, C., Virgili, F.J., Melandri, A., Japelj, J.: . Nature 504, 119 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12814

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Troja, E., Lipunov, V.M., Mundell, C.G., Butler, N.R., Watson, A.M., Kobayashi, S., Cenko, S.B., Marshall, F.E., Ricci, R., Fruchter, A., Wieringa, M.H., Gorbovskoy, E.S., Kornilov, V., Kutyrev, A., Lee, W.H., Toy, V., Tyurina, N.V., Budnev, N.M., Buckley, D.A.H., González, J., Gress, O., Horesh, A., Panasyuk, M.I., Prochaska, J.X., Ramirez-Ruiz, E., Rebolo Lopez, R., Richer, M.G., Roman-Zuniga, C., Serra-Ricart, M., Yurkov, V., Gehrels, N.: . Nature 547, 425 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23289

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. Guidorzi, C., Monfardini, A., Gomboc, A., Mottram, C.J., Mundell, C.G., Steele, I.A., Carter, D., Bode, M.F., Smith, R.J., Fraser, S.N., Burgdorf, M.J., Newsam, A.M.: . PASP 118, 288 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1086/499289

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. Mundell, C.G., Guidorzi, C., Steele, I.A.: . Adv. Astron. 2010, 718468 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/718468

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  34. Brown, T.M., Baliber, N., Bianco, F.B., Bowman, M., Burleson, B., Conway, P., Crellin, M., Depagne, É., De Vera, J., Dilday, B., Dragomir, D., Dubberley, M., Eastman, J.D., Elphick, M., Falarski, M., Foale, S., Ford, M., Fulton, B.J., Garza, J., Gomez, E.L., Graham, M., Greene, R., Haldeman, B., Hawkins, E., Haworth, B., Haynes, R., Hidas, M., Hjelstrom, A.E., Howell, D.A., Hygelund, J., Lister, T.A., Lobdill, R., Martinez, J., Mullins, D.S., Norbury, M., Parrent, J., Paulson, R., Petry, D.L., Pickles, A., Posner, V., Rosing, W.E., Ross, R., Sand, D.J., Saunders, E.S., Shobbrook, J., Shporer, A., Street, R.A., Thomas, D., Tsapras, Y., Tufts, J.R., Valenti, S., Vander Horst, K., Walker, Z., White, G., Willis, M.: . Publ. ASP 125, 1031 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1086/673168

    Google Scholar 

  35. Lavigne, J.M., Jean, P., Kandel, B., Borrel, V., Roques, J.P., Lichti, G., Schönfelder, V., Diehl, R., Georgii, R., Kirchner, T., Durouchoux, P., Cordier, B., Diallo, N., Sanchez, F., Payne, B., Leleux, P., Caraveo, P., Teegarden, B., Matteson, J., Slassi-Sennou, S., Skinner, G., Connell, P.: . Nucl. Phys. B Proc. Suppl. 60, 69 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0920-5632(97)00502-1

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  36. Barthelmy, S.D., Butterworth, P., Cline, T.L., Gehrels, N., Fishman, G.J., Kouveliotou, C., Meegan, C.A.: . Astrophys. Space Sci. 231(1–2), 235 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00658623

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  37. Schlegel, D.J., Finkbeiner, D.P., Davis, M.: . ApJ 500, 525 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1086/305772

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  38. Siegel, M., Burrows, D., Deich, A., Gropp, J., Kennea, J., LaPorte, S.e.: GRB coordinates network. Circular Service, 22973 (2018)

  39. Martone, R., Guidorzi, C., Kobayashi, S., Mundell, C., Gomboc, A., Steele, I., Cucchiara, A., Morris, D.: GRB coordinates network. Circular Service, 22976 (2018)

  40. Meegan, C., Lichti, G., Bhat, P.N., Bissaldi, E., Briggs, M.S., Connaughton, V., Diehl, R., Fishman, G., Greiner, J., Hoover, A.S., van der Horst, A.J., von Kienlin, A., Kippen, R.M., Kouveliotou, C., McBreen, S., Paciesas, W.S., Preece, R., Steinle, H., Wallace, M.S., Wilson, R.B., Wilson-Hodge, C.: . ApJ 702, 791 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/702/1/791

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  41. LSST Science Collaboration, Abell, P.A., Allison, J., Anderson, S.F., Andrew, J.R., Angel, J.R.P., Armus, L., Arnett, D., Asztalos, S.J., Axelrod, T.S., et al. arXiv e-prints (2009)

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Leo Singer for his help and support in the developing of the code. Support for this work was provided by Università di Ferrara through grant FIR 2018 “A Broad-band study of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst Prompt and Afterglow Emission” (PI Guidorzi).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Martone.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Martone, R., Guidorzi, C., Mundell, C.G. et al. A robotic pipeline for fast GRB followup with the Las Cumbrés observatory network. Exp Astron 48, 25–48 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-019-09634-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-019-09634-y

Keywords

Navigation