Identification of problematic epochs in astronomical time series through transfer learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Cavuoti, Stefano, De Cicco, Demetra, Doorenbos, Lars, Brescia, Massimo, Torbaniuk, Olena, Longo, Giuseppe, Paolillo, Maurizio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Cavuoti, Stefano
De Cicco, Demetra
Doorenbos, Lars
Brescia, Massimo
Torbaniuk, Olena
Longo, Giuseppe
Paolillo, Maurizio
author_facet Cavuoti, Stefano
De Cicco, Demetra
Doorenbos, Lars
Brescia, Massimo
Torbaniuk, Olena
Longo, Giuseppe
Paolillo, Maurizio
contents We present a novel method for detecting outliers in astronomical time series based on the combination of a deep neural network and a k-nearest neighbor algorithm with the aim of identifying and removing problematic epochs in the light curves of astronomical objects. We use an EfficientNet network pre-trained on ImageNet as a feature extractor and perform a k-nearest neighbor search in the resulting feature space to measure the distance from the first neighbor for each image. If the distance is above the one obtained for a stacked image, we flag the image as a potential outlier. We apply our method to time series obtained from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) monitoring campaign of the Deep Drilling Fields of the Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). We show that our method can effectively identify and remove artifacts from the VST time series and improve the quality and reliability of the data. This approach may prove very useful in sight of the amount of data that will be provided by the LSST, which will prevent the inspection of individual light curves. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of our method and suggest possible directions for future work.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_05591
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Identification of problematic epochs in astronomical time series through transfer learning
Cavuoti, Stefano
De Cicco, Demetra
Doorenbos, Lars
Brescia, Massimo
Torbaniuk, Olena
Longo, Giuseppe
Paolillo, Maurizio
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
We present a novel method for detecting outliers in astronomical time series based on the combination of a deep neural network and a k-nearest neighbor algorithm with the aim of identifying and removing problematic epochs in the light curves of astronomical objects. We use an EfficientNet network pre-trained on ImageNet as a feature extractor and perform a k-nearest neighbor search in the resulting feature space to measure the distance from the first neighbor for each image. If the distance is above the one obtained for a stacked image, we flag the image as a potential outlier. We apply our method to time series obtained from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) monitoring campaign of the Deep Drilling Fields of the Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). We show that our method can effectively identify and remove artifacts from the VST time series and improve the quality and reliability of the data. This approach may prove very useful in sight of the amount of data that will be provided by the LSST, which will prevent the inspection of individual light curves. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of our method and suggest possible directions for future work.
title Identification of problematic epochs in astronomical time series through transfer learning
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.05591