Lossy Compression WG Report

Abstract

We report on the investigation into the use of lossy compression algorithms on LSST images that otherwise could not be stored for general retrieval and use by scientists. We find that modest quantization of images coupled with lossless compression algorithms can provide a factor of ∼6 savings in storage space while still providing images useful for followup scientific investigations. Given that this is only means that some products could be made quickly available to users and would free resources for community ues that would otherwise be necessary to re-compute these products, we recommend that LSST consider using a lossy compression to archive and serve image products where appropriate.