Kavli Affiliate: Robert Simcoe
| Summary:
We present the data reduction and transient detection pipeline for the Wide-field Infrared Transient Explorer (WINTER) surveyor and report its on-sky performance. The WINTER camera utilizes cost-effective InGaAs sensors as alternatives to traditional IR sensors, and is mounted on a dedicated 1-m robotic telescope at Palomar Observatory. The WINTER camera has six detectors producing a combined field-of-view of 1.2 sq. deg. equipped with y, J, and shortened-H bands. WINTER saw first light in June 2023 and has been operating robotically since. The WINTER data processing pipeline ($textttwinterdrp$) has been implemented within the broader framework $textttmirar$: a modular, open-source $textttpython$ package developed for realtime processing of images from time-domain surveys. $textttwinterdrp$ performs end-to-end data processing implementing data reduction and image subtraction to go from raw dithered WINTER images to transient alerts in the $textttavro$ format, which are then sent to $textttSkyPortal$ for vetting and follow-up. During a year of observations in 2024, WINTER achieved J-band median 5-$σ$ depths ranging from $18.1-18.8$ mag (AB) on its six detectors in 960 second integrations as part of its survey, with an astrometric accuracy of $approx0.2$ arcsec (a fifth of a pixel) and a detector-performance limited photometric accuracy ranging from $approx0.09-0.18$ mag for its six detectors. We present early science results from WINTER, which include the identification of a stellar merger in M31, dust-enshrouded outbursting young stellar objects and classical novae in the Galactic plane, NIR followup of known supernovae, and multi-messenger follow-up of neutrinos, gravitational waves, fast X-ray transients and gamma-ray bursts.
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