South Pole Telescope Software Systems: Control, Monitoring, and Data Acquisition

TL;DR

This paper describes the software system for controlling, monitoring, and acquiring data from the South Pole Telescope, including its new polarization-sensitive camera and digital readout systems, enabling precise CMB measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive control and data acquisition software system tailored for the South Pole Telescope's advanced instrumentation.

Findings

Successful real-time data collection and monitoring

Effective control of the polarization-sensitive camera

Integration of autonomous readout boards for data acquisition

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.