A data processing pipeline for the WINTER near-infrared surveyor using the mirar framework

@misc{karambelkar2026data,
  title = {{A data processing pipeline for the WINTER near-infrared surveyor using the $\textttmirar$ framework}},
  author = {Viraj Karambelkar and Robert Stein and Danielle Frostig and Saarah Hall and Mansi M. Kasliwal and Tomás Ahumada and Michael W. Coughlin and Thomas Culino and Kishalay De and Sulekha Kishore and Theophile Jegou du Laz and Nathan P. Lourie and Geoffrey Mo and Tanishk Mohan and Sam Rose and Benjamin R. Roulston and Aditya Pawan Saikia and Mallika Sheshadri and Robert A. Simcoe and Jamie Soon and Aswin Suresh},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.10675},
  eprint = {2609.10675},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10675},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - A data processing pipeline for the WINTER near-infrared surveyor using the mirar framework
AU  - Viraj Karambelkar
AU  - Robert Stein
AU  - Danielle Frostig
AU  - Saarah Hall
AU  - Mansi M. Kasliwal
AU  - Tomás Ahumada
AU  - Michael W. Coughlin
AU  - Thomas Culino
AU  - Kishalay De
AU  - Sulekha Kishore
AU  - Theophile Jegou du Laz
AU  - Nathan P. Lourie
AU  - Geoffrey Mo
AU  - Tanishk Mohan
AU  - Sam Rose
AU  - Benjamin R. Roulston
AU  - Aditya Pawan Saikia
AU  - Mallika Sheshadri
AU  - Robert A. Simcoe
AU  - Jamie Soon
AU  - Aswin Suresh
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/09
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.10675
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10675
AB  - 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 (winterdrp) has been implemented within the broader framework mirar: a modular, open-source python package developed for realtime processing of images from time-domain surveys. winterdrp performs end-to-end data processing implementing data reduction and image subtraction to go from raw dithered WINTER images to transient alerts in the avro format, which are then sent to SkyPortal 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 ≈0.2 arcsec (a fifth of a pixel) and a detector-performance limited photometric accuracy ranging from ≈0.09−0.18 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.
ER  -