There are three data pipelines for LAMOST survey. The raw data is reduced to one dimension spectra by the data reduction pipeline(2D pipeline), the extracted spectra are classified and measured by the spectral analysis pipeline(1D pipeline), while stellar parameters are measured by LASP pipeline.

(a) The data reduction pipeline. The main tasks of the data reduction pipeline include bias calibration, flat field, spectra extraction, sky subtraction, wavelength calibration, exposure merging and wavelength band connection.

(b) The spectra analysis pipeline. This pipeline is designed to classify and identify objects from the extracted spectra and to measure their redshift (or radial velocity). The PCAZ (Glazebrook et al. 1998) method is applied to do the classification and redshift measurement.

(c) Stellar parameters LASP. Stellar parameters pipeline (LASP) is to estimate stellar atmospheric parameters, e.g. effective temperature Teff, surface gravity log g, and metallicity [Fe/H], for F, G and K type stars. To effectively determine those fundamental stellar measurements, three steps with different methods are employed. The first step utilizes the line indices to approximately define the effective temperature range of the analyzed star. Secondly, a set of the initial approximate values of the three parameters are given based on template fitting method. Finally, we exploit ULySS (Koleva et al. 2009) to give the final values of parameters through minimizing the χ 2 value between the observed spectrum and a multidimensional grid of model spectra which is generated by an interpolating of ELODIE library. There are two other classification for A type star and M type star. For A type star, standard MK system is employed (Gray et al. 2009) to give each object temperature class and luminosity type. For M type star, they are classified into subclasses by an improved Hammer method, and metallicity of each objects is also given.

During the pilot survey, algorithms were improved and the pipelines were tested. The products of LAMOST survey will include extracted and calibrated spectra in FITS format, a catalog of FGK stars with stellar parameters, a catalog of M dwarf with subclass and metallicity, and a catalog of A type star with MK classification. A part of the pilot survey data, including about 319 000 high quality spectra with SNR > 10, a catalog of stellar parameters of FGK stars and another catalog of a subclass of M type stars have been released to the public in August 2012 (Luo et al. 2012). The general survey started from October 2012, and completed the first year survey. The formal data release one (DR1) is being prepared, which will include both pilot survey and first year general survey, and planed to be released under the LAMOST data policy.

We are carrying out near-infrared spectroscopy of Cepheids in the Galactic nuclear disk. The H-band spectra taken with SUBARU/IRCS indicate that their kinematics are consistent with the rotation of the nuclear disk.

Chemical and kinematical information is needed in order to understand and trace the formation history of our Galaxy. In the homogeneous large sample of F and G stars in the survey by Nordström et al. (2004), groups of stars with orbital parameters different from field stars were found by Helmi et al. (2006). Simulations of disrupted satellites showed that the groups had similar properties as infalling dwarf satellites would have after several Gyr. From high resolution spectra, we analyse elemental abundances of stars in 3 such groups with conserved kinematic properties. Here we present first results of s- and r- process element abundances in two such groups and compare with average field stars.

We use the stellar population synthesis code SeBa (Portegies Zwart & Verbunt (1996), Toonen, Nelemans & Portegies Zwart (2012)) to study the halo white dwarf population. Here we assume a Kroupa initial mass function and compare 4 models, varying two parameters: the star formation (SF) history of the halo (either continuous SF during 2.5 Gyr, which started 13.2 Gyr ago, or a SF burst during 360 Myr, which started 12.9 Gyr ago – see the left panel of the figure) and the binary fraction of the halo (either 100% single stars, or 100% binaries). White dwarf cooling models (Althaus et al. (2009) and Renedo et al. (2010)) allow us to plot the halo white dwarf luminosity function for these 4 models, as is done in the right panel of the figure. Combined with an assumption about the density distribution of halo stars, we will study which of these white dwarfs Gaia can see, and what that can tell us about the initial parameter distributions in the halo. In the near future, we plan to use the Munich-Groningen semi-analytical galaxy formation model (Starkenburg et al. (2013)), to obtain key ingredients for the population synthesis modeling, such as a realistic star formation history (see the left panel of the figure).

Using ~2200 BATC main sequence (MS) stars which include SDSS stellar atmospheric parameters, we develop the polynomial photometric calibration method to evaluate the stellar effective temperature and metallicity for BATC data. This calibration method has been applied to about 160 000 MS stars. The mean stellar metallicity smoothly decreases from −0.65 to −0.78 dex in the interval 0.5 < |Z| ≤ 2 kpc. Metallicity distributions in the halo and the thick disk seem invariant with the distance from the Galactic plane.

For the M active catalogue of Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST), 933 sources are presented in at least two exposures. We found that many M active stars show chromospheric variability in the Ca II H, Hα, Hβ, and Hγ lines on short or long timescales.

We report on the discovery and characterization of a possibly new signature related to the formation of the Milky Way stellar local halo.

The field of time-domain astronomy is expected to enjoy a golden age during this decade. However, the traditional method for the classification of transient candidates using spectra obtained with medium- to large-aperture telescopes is extremely time consuming and struggling to keep up with the discovery rate. The Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) Machine uses a new approach in order to overcome this shortcoming.

We present the results of special tests of the automatic procedure for atmospheric parameters determination based on spectroscopy.

The statistical equilibrium of neutral and ionized silicon in the atmospheres of cool stars is discussed. Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium effects (NLTE) are investigated. It is found that the NLTE effects for Si are important, in particular for warm metal-poor stars. For warm metal-poor stars, the NLTE abundance correction reaches ~0.2 dex relative to standard LTE calculations.

We gather a sample of both metal-rich and low metallicity galaxies. Both of them have oxygen abundances estimated from electron temperature (Te). They spread in a wide stellar mass range from 106M⊙ to 1011M⊙. Then, a consistent relation of stellar mass and metallicity are derived from them for such wide range of stellar masses. This relation also shows clearly the discrepancy of Te-based oxygen abundances from those derived from the strong-line method.

We present preliminary results from a chemical evolution model that tracks the composition of heavy elements beyond iron in a globular cluster. The heavy elements can be used as tracers of the nucleosynthetic events that defined the formation and evolution of star clusters in the early Universe. In particular, the chemical evolution model focuses on the hypothesis that rapidly-rotating massive stars produced the heavy elements via the slow neutron-capture process and seeded the proto-cluster while the stars we see today were still forming.

We compare our model with heavy element abundances in M4 and M5, and M22. Our results are strongly dependent on the highly uncertain rate of the 17O(α,γ)21Ne reaction, which determines the strength of 16O as a neutron poison. We find that the [Pb/Ba] ratio is too low to match the empirical value, which might suggest that a contribution from AGB stars is required.

Stellar radial velocity is estimated by using template fitting and Markov Chain Monte Carlo(MCMC) methods. This method works on the LAMOST stellar spectra. The MCMC simulation generates a probability distribution of the RV. The RV error can also computed from distribution.

Thermonuclear explosions from helium double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar mass model have been considered as an alternative way for the production of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). In this work, we systematically studied the helium double-detonation model, in which a carbon–oxygen white dwarf (CO WD) accumulates a helium layer from a non-degenerate helium star.

The single-degenerate (SD) model is currently a favourable progenitor scenario for the production of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). The companion in the SD model would survive after the SN explosion. In this work, we obtained the velocity distribution of the surviving companion stars from different SD scenarios in the Galaxy, which can be verified by future observations.

We select super high quality spectra of spectral type A, F, G, K, M stars from SDSS C DR7. We mix our spectra with noise and then measure their radial velocity. The analysis shows that the accuracy of K, M type stars is much better than A, F stars. With our relationship between the signal-to-noise and accuracy of radial velocity measurement of different spectral type, we provide a good reference for stellar study related to radial velocity.

We positionally cross-matched the stellar observations between LAMOST pilot survey and SDSS/SEGUE database, picked out more than 4000 targets observed by both projects, mostly are late A and FGK type stars. For the two dataset, we adopted ULySS program (Koleva et al. 2009, Wu et al. 2011a) to determine the stellar atmospheric parameters (Teff, log g, [Fe/H], Radial Velocity) with the ELODIE library as a reference (Wu et al. 2011b). For the individual parameter, we made two kinds of comparison, first for the SDSS spectra, second for the LAMOST spectra, tested the differences between the SSPP (SDSS/SEGUE stellar parameter pipeline) measurements and the ULySS derived results. Since the LAMOST pilot survey observations SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) are low, for the latter comparison we excluded those stars with g band SNR < 10, then the sample volumn reduced to around 1300. Fig.1 displays the details of the second kind comparison for each parameter. All the comparisons demonstrate acceptable and reasonable agreement between each other for medium-resolution survey spectra. Our preliminary examination on the precision of the stellar parameters that could be derived from the LAMOST pilot survey observations exhibits the equivalent capability of LAMOST to study our Milky Way as for the SDSS/SEGUE. The LAMOST telescope executed its formal survey from Sep. 28th 2012, it will yield more better quality stellar spectroscopic data spanning in deeper and broader sky coverage (this work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China under No. 11103031).

The Gaia mission will observe the entire sky for 5 years providing ultra-precise astrometric, photometric and spectroscopic measurements for a billion stars in the Galaxy. Hence, naturally, Gaia becomes an all-sky multi-epoch photometric survey, which will monitor and detect variability with millimag precision as well as new transient sources such as supernovae, novae, microlensing events, tidal disruption events, asteroids, among others.

Gaia data-flow allows for quick detections of anomalies within 24-48h after the observation. Such near-real-time survey will be able to detect about 6000 supernovae brighter than 19 mag up to redshifts of Z 0.15. The on-board low-resolution (R 100) spectrograph will allow for early and robust classification of transients and minimise the false-alert rate, even providing the estimates on redshift for supernovae. Gaia will also offer a unique possibility for detecting astrometric shifts in microlensing events, which, combined with Gaia's and ground-based photometry, will provide unique mass measurements of lenses, constrains on the dark matter content in the Milky Way and possible detections of free floating black holes.

Alerts from Gaia will be publicly available soon after the detection is verified and tested. First alerts are expected early in 2014 and those will be used for ground-based verification. All facilities are invited to join the verification and the follow-up effort. Alerts will be published on a web page, via Skyalert.org and via emailing list. Each alert will contain coordinates, Gaia light curve and low-resolution spectra, classification and cross-matching results.

More information on the Gaia Science Alerts can be found here: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/ioa/wikis/gsawgwiki/

The full version of the poster is available here: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/ioa/wikis/gsawgwiki/images/1/13/GaiaAlertsPosterIAUS298.pdf

We use 63,774 F/G dwarf stars from the LAMOST pilot survey to explore the velocity distribution in the solar neighborhood. The intrinsic UV distribution is reconstructed with a 20-Gaussian model using extreme deconvolution. We find at least two arcs, one extending from (−106, −3) to (94, −27) km/s and the other from (29, −9) to (78, −51) km/s. The arcs are qualitatively consistent with numerical simulations of the resonance induced by the Galactic bar and can be used to constrain its dynamical properties.

Unknown extinction of Galactic disk stars makes it difficult to select flux standards based on colors alone for the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anti-center (LSS-GAC; Liu et al., this volume). To solve this problem, for each spectrograph of an LSS-GAC plate, 5 – 10 F-type stars are selected from spectroscopy-based stellar parameters (Teff, log g, [Fe/H]) and adopted as flux standards, and an iterative approach is adopted to calibrate spectra. From spectra processed with nominal response curves, stellar parameters are derived with the PKU stellar parameter pipeline, LSP3 (Liu et al., this volume). More realistic response curves are then derived by comparing the observed spectra with synthetic spectra (Munari et al. 2005). The later is reddened assuming a R=3.1 Fitzpatrick (1999) reddening law using E(B-V) obtained by comparing photometric and synthetic colors. New stellar parameters are derived from spectra reprocessed using the new response curves, iteratively. Comparison of LSS-GAC spectral colors with photometric ones yields differences on average 0.01±0.06 and −0.06±0.04 mag in g-r and r-i, respectively. The relatively large difference in r-i is caused by the fact that the current pipeline has opted to not to correct for the telluric absorption, most notably in the i-band. Comparison of multi-epoch LSS-GAC spectra indicates < 8% uncertainties in the spectral shape from 4000 to 9000 Å. The LSS-GAC seems to yields spectra of more realistic SEDs than the SDSS (DR7) at low Galactic latitudes (Fig. 1). The shape of LAMOST response curves may vary by up to 20% in a given night, and even larger for different nights, indicating that flux calibration plate by plate is essential.