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Flamingos-2 (F-2) is a wide-field, near-infrared imager, and long-slit and multi-object spectrograph built by Stephen Eikenberry and his team at the University of Florida [1] that operates on the Gemini South 8m telescope. After a series of refurbishments, F-2 achieved its nominal performance in 2017. Since then it has become the most used near-infrared (NIR) spectrograph at Gemini, with more than 90 refereed publications since 2016, a number growing at the pace of other workhorse NIR instruments in their first years of regular operation., Issue 3, June 2022

The era of large transient surveys (e.g. Catalina, Pan-STARRS, ZTF, and especially LSST) and multi-messenger astronomy provides many exciting opportunities for new discoveries and understanding of the variable sky. However, the volume of alerts make software automation imperative for object classification, prioritization, scheduling, and data reduction so that the community can get the most science from the new discoveries. Therefore, the NSF's National OIR Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab: Rubin, Gemini, SOAR, CTIO, KPNO, and the Community Science and Data Center) provides a full set of time-domain capabilities. Rubin Observatory's LSST will be the preeminent time-domain survey in the next decade. The ANTARES broker collects and classifies events from ZTF and LSST in the future. NOIRLab is teaming up with the Las Cumbres Observatory to develop tools for automating transient follow-up and to incorporate the participating telescopes into the Astronomical Event Observatory Network (AEON). SOAR now has an "AEON", or queue, mode that makes use of the Las Cumbres scheduler, and has a continuing effort to increase automation of the observing process. Gemini is building new instruments and working on significant software upgrades to improve usability and implement an automatic scheduler. Some data are now being reduced in real-time and is distributed via the NOIRLab and Gemini science archives. This presentation will describe these capabilities and future plans.

As emphasized in the 2020 Decadal Survey report Pathways to Discovery, time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics from both the ground and space is a tremendous challenge and opportunity in the coming decade. The era of large transient surveys (e.g. Catalina, Pan-STARRS, ZTF, Rubin/LSST, Roman) provides many exciting opportunities for new discoveries and understanding of the variable sky. However, the volume of alerts make software automation imperative for object classification, prioritization, scheduling, observing, and data reduction so that the community can get the most science from the new discoveries. Therefore, the NSF's National OIR Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab: Rubin, Gemini, SOAR, CTIO, KPNO, and the Community Science and Data Center) is teaming up with the Las Cumbres Observatory to develop tools for automating transient follow-up and to incorporate the participating telescopes into the Astronomical Event Observatory Network (AEON). SOAR now has an AEON-based queue mode that makes use of the Las Cumbres scheduler; Gemini is working on significant software and instrumentation upgrades. Within the next decade we plan to incorporate other facilities including the CTIO 4m/DECam and the US-ELTs. This poster will describe this project, future plans, and ideas for cooperation and synergies between ground and space-based facilities