Abstract
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is a system of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) located in the Khomas Highland in Namibia. It measures cosmic gamma rays of very high energies (VHE; >100GeV) using the Earth’s atmosphere as a calorimeter. The H.E.S.S. Array entered Phase II in September 2012 with the inauguration of a fifth telescope that is larger and more complex than the other four. This paper will give an overview of the current H.E.S.S. central data acquisition (DAQ) system with particular emphasis on the upgrades made to integrate the fifth telescope into the array. At first, the various requirements for the central DAQ are discussed then the general design principles employed to fulfil these requirements are described. Finally, the performance, stability and reliability of the H.E.S.S. central DAQ are presented. One of the major accomplishments is that less than 0.8% of observation time has been lost due to central DAQ problems since 2009.
Highlights
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is a system of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) located in the Khomas Highland in Namibia
The H.E.S.S. central data acquisition (DAQ) has been in operation for almost 10 years without any major problems since the inauguration of the first telescope in 2003
The central DAQ did only contribute to a loss of 0.8 % of the available dark time since 2009 proving its ability to quickly deal with hardware or software problems during data taking
Summary
The requirements of a DAQ system for an experiment like H.E.S.S. can be divided into three groups. There are design goals that need to be met in order to achieve optimal scientific output. There are technical requirements that need to be fulfilled by the DAQ. The last but not least group of requirements is about ensuring that the system is as user-friendly as possible
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