Page:SATCON2 Algorithms Report.pdf/34



We summarize our findings in the following conclusions:

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 * 1) We re-emphasize SATCON1 recommendations 1 to 3. New tools are critical to partially mitigate the constellation impacts on astronomy. The PassPredict software will allow astronomers to determine which observations may be affected and in conjunction with simulations may allow quantification of the degradation of science data expected in a particular situation. The TrailMask software will allow some science to be salvaged from some affected datasets and reduce the chance of spurious results being published. A large simulation and modeling effort will allow the community to assess impacts of current and future constellations on both ground- and spac-ebased observations and establish recommended constraints on the design of constellations.
 * 2) In the report we have provided a moderately detailed analysis of requirements, interfaces and algorithms that may serve as a starting point for software implementation.
 * 3) Some software already exists to help with parts of these tasks. However, much of it is specialized to particular instruments or situations, and needs to be generalized.
 * 4) There are gaps where no suitable software exists, and a significant software development effort is warranted. Project management, documentation, user support and maintenance will all be important and will require substantial resources and funding. Educational materials (e.g., lesson plans) are also desirable.
 * 5) To support the diverse community of night-sky users, software must be provided in several forms: libraries (integrated with core astronomy interfaces like the Astropy project), applications for data pipelines, web services and planetarium-compatible services.
 * 6) We conclude that there is an urgent need to develop a set of test cases, including example datasets covering a wide range of instrument and satellite-trail properties which can serve as a standard test suite for the development of the software and as benchmark comparisons for both archival and new sources of data.
 * 7) We endorse the SatHub concept developed by the Observations Working Group. SatHub provides a natural home for curated software (and links to external software), satellite catalog and ephemeris access, test data, and documentation. This aspect of SatHub, like the others, will need continuing development, support and maintenance at a professional level.
 * 8) The constellations are being launched now but software takes time to develop. Resources should