NDRIO White Paper: Envisioning Digital Research Infrastructure for the Simons Observatory

TL;DR

This paper discusses how Canadian digital research infrastructure can support the Simons Observatory's advanced cosmic microwave background data processing and public data sharing, building on previous successes with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope.

Contribution

It proposes a plan for Canadian DRI to enhance data processing and management for the upcoming Simons Observatory, including resource estimates and data sharing strategies.

Findings

Canadian DRI can significantly support SO data processing.

Estimated resource requirements for advanced research computing.

Proposed data management system enables public data analysis.

Abstract

Observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are an incredibly fertile source of information for studying the origins and evolution of the Universe. Canadian digital research infrastructure (DRI) has played a key role in reducing ever-larger quantities of raw data into maps of the CMB suitable for scientific analysis, as exemplified by the many scientific results produced by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) over the past decade. The Simons Observatory (SO), due to start observing in 2023, will be able to measure the CMB with about an order of magnitude more sensitivity than ACT and other current telescopes. In this White Paper we outline how Canadian DRI under the New Digital Research Infrastructure Organization (NDRIO) could build upon the legacy of ACT and play a pivotal role in processing SO data, helping to produce data products that will be central to the cosmology community for years to come. We include estimates of DRI resources required for this work to indicate what kind of advanced research computing (ARC) would best support an SO-like project. Finally, we comment on how ARC allocations could be structured for large collaborations like SO and propose a research data management (RDM) system that makes public data releases available not only for download but also for direct analysis on Canadian DRI.