New data analysis for BioSAXS at the ESRF

Abstract

The second phase of the ESRF upgrade program did not only provide a new storage ring (Extremely Brilliant Source, EBS) but also allowed several beamlines to be refurbished. The BioSAXS beamline (located on port BM29) was upgraded with a new wiggler source and a larger detector. All analysis software has been rewritten to cope with the increased data flux and continues to provide beamline users with reduced and pre-processed data in real time. This article describes FreeSAS, an open-source collection of various small-angle scattering analysis algorithms needed to reduce and analyze BioSAXS data, and Dahu, the tool used to interface data analysis with beamline control. It further presents the data-processing pipelines for the different data acquisitions modes of the beamline, using either a sample changer for individual homogeneous samples or an inline size-exclusion chromatography setup.