South Pole Telescope software systems: Control, monitoring, and data acquisition

K. Story, E. Leitch, P. Ade, K. A. Aird, J. E. Austermann, J. A. Beall, D. Becker, A. N. Bender, B. A. Benson, L. E. Bleem, J. Britton, J. E. Carlstrom, C. L. Chang, H. C. Chiang, H. M. Cho, T. M. Crawford, A. T. Crites, A. Datesman, T. De Haan, M. A. DobbsW. Everett, A. Ewall-Wice, E. M. George, N. W. Halverson, N. Harrington, J. W. Henning, G. C. Hilton, W. L. Holzapfel, S. Hoover, N. Huang, J. Hubmayr, K. D. Irwin, M. Karfunkle, R. Keisler, J. Kennedy, A. T. Lee, D. Li, M. Lueker, D. P. Marrone, J. J. McMahon, J. Mehl, S. S. Meyer, J. Montgomery, T. E. Montroy, J. Nagy, T. Natoli, J. P. Nibarger, M. D. Niemack, V. Novosad, S. Padin, C. Pryke, C. L. Reichardt, J. E. Ruhl, B. R. Saliwanchik, J. T. Sayre, K. K. Schaffer, E. Shirokoff, G. Smecher, B. Stalder, C. Tucker, K. Vanderlinde, J. D. Vieira, G. Wang, R. Williamson, V. Yefremenko, K. W. Yoon, E. Young

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

We present the software system used to control and operate the South Pole Telescope. The South Pole Telescope is a 10-meter millimeter-wavelength telescope designed to measure anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at arcminute angular resolution. In the austral summer of 2011/12, the SPT was equipped with a new polarization-sensitive camera, which consists of 1536 transition-edge sensor bolometers. The bolometers are read out using 36 independent digital frequency multiplexing (DfMux) readout boards, each with its own embedded processors. These autonomous boards control and read out data from the focal plane with on-board software and firmware. An overall control software system running on a separate control computer controls the DfMux boards, the cryostat and all other aspects of telescope operation. This control software collects and monitors data in real-time, and stores the data to disk for transfer to the United States for analysis.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSoftware and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
EventSoftware and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Duration: Jul 1 2012Jul 4 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume8451
ISSN (Print)0277-786X

Other

OtherSoftware and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityAmsterdam
Period7/1/127/4/12

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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