Simultaneous operation and control of about 100 telescopes for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project is an initiative to build the next generation ground-based very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray instrument. Compared to current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope experiments CTA will extend the energy range and improve the angular resolution while increasing the sensitivity up to a factor of 10. With about 100 separate telescopes it will be operated as an observatory open to a wide astrophysics and particle physics community, providing a deep insight into the non-thermal high-energy universe. The CTA Array Control system (ACTL) is responsible for several essential control tasks supporting the evaluation and selection of proposals, as well as the preparation, scheduling, and finally the execution of observations with the array. A possible basic distributed software framework for ACTL being considered is the ALMA Common Software (ACS). The ACS framework follows a container component model and contains a high level abstraction layer to integrate different types of device. To achieve a low-level consolidation of connecting control hardware, OPC UA (OPen Connectivity-Unified Architecture) client functionality is integrated directly into ACS, thus allowing interaction with other OPC UA capable hardware. The CTA Data Acquisition System comprises the data readout of all cameras and the transfer of the data to a camera server farm, thereby using standard hardware and software technologies. CTA array control is also covering conceptions for a possible array trigger system and the corresponding clock distribution. The design of the CTA observations scheduler is introducing new algorithmic technologies to achieve the required flexibility.