Fermi Large Area Telescope operations: progress over 4 years

Robert A. Cameron

doi:10.1117/12.926550

13 September 2012 Fermi Large Area Telescope operations: progress over 4 years

Robert A. Cameron

Proceedings Volume 8448, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems IV; 84481J (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926550
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched into orbit in June 2008, and is conducting a multi-year gammaray all-sky survey, using the main instrument on Fermi, the Large Area Telescope (LAT). Fermi began its science mission in August 2008, and has now been operating for almost 4 years. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory hosts the LAT Instrument Science Operations Center (ISOC), which supports the operation of the LAT in conjunction with the Mission Operations Center (MOC) and the Fermi Science Support Center (FSSC), both at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The LAT has a continuous output data rate of about 1.5 Mbits per second, and data from the LAT are stored on Fermi and transmitted to the ground through TDRS and the MOC to the ISOC about 10 times per day. Several hundred computers at SLAC are used to process LAT data to perform event reconstruction, and gamma-ray photon data are subsequently delivered to the FSSC for public release with a few hours of being detected by the LAT. We summarize the current status of the LAT, and the evolution of the data processing and monitoring performed by the ISOC during the first 4 years of the Fermi mission, together with future plans for further changes to detected event data processing and instrument operations and monitoring.

Citation Download Citation

Robert A. Cameron "Fermi Large Area Telescope operations: progress over 4 years", Proc. SPIE 8448, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems IV, 84481J (13 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926550

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