Selecting gravitational wave events for EM follow-up in the advanced detector era

Gravitational wave sources with emissions in the frequency band detectable by ground-based instruments may have electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. The EM counterpart could help confirm the existence of the gravitational wave signature and provide complementary information regarding the source event. However, observable emissions are transient, requiring rapid communication between observing partners and members of the LSC (LIGO Scientific Collaboration) and Virgo in order to be captured. During the past year, we developed and began testing software known as the VOEvent Approval Processor that oversees the selection of events and generation of alerts to be sent to GCN for distribution. This talk will cover how VOEvent Approval Processor has been tested, thus far, and what kind of work is still to be done for its use in the advanced detector era.