Community Science and Data Center
Programs within the Community Science and Data Center support and enable a broad range of astronomical community science activities across the US ground-based optical and infrared system.
The Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) provides software systems, user services, and development initiatives to connect and support the scientific missions of Gemini, KPNO, Vera C. Rubin Observatory and CTIO. Activities within the CSDC program include:
- The Time Allocation Committee program, which supports proposals for open-access observing time on telescopes across the US ground-based O/IR system through the operation of a peer-review process.
- The US National Gemini Office, which serves as the interface for the US astronomical community to the Gemini Observatory.
- Time Domain Services, developing infrastructure for time-domain astronomy including the ANTARES event broker.
- Data Management Operations, providing core transport, archiving, processing, and online distribution for data obtained at CTIO and KPNO telescopes through Astro Data Archive.
- Data Lab, a science platform providing high-level tools for discovery, exploration, and analysis of large public survey datasets
- NOIRLab institutional support for the US Extremely Large Telescope Program, the La Serena School of Data Science, and other capacity-building initiatives in US OIR astronomy.
CSDC is a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.
Travel information for CTIO/NOIRLab HQ is available here.