Trigger and data rates expected for the CTA Observatory

TL;DR

This paper estimates the trigger and data rates for the CTA Observatory, highlighting the challenges posed by its large effective area and low energy threshold for data acquisition systems.

Contribution

It provides detailed predictions of trigger and data rates based on Monte Carlo simulations for the CTA, informing system design considerations.

Findings

Array trigger rates of around 10 kHz

Data rates from 100 MB/s to 1000 MB/s

Rates depend on read-out scenarios

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is an initiative to build a next-generation observatory for very-high energy $\gamma$-rays. Its expected large effective area ($\mathcal{O}(10^{7} \mathrm{m}^2)$) and energy threshold as low as 25 GeV imply a challenge for triggering and data acquisition systems. The analysis of the official CTA Monte Carlo production-1 simulations leads to array trigger rates of $\mathcal{O}$(10 kHz) and data rates ranging from $\mathcal{O}$(100 MB/s) to $\mathcal{O}$(1000 MB/s), depending on the read-out scenario.