Dr. Vito Conforti Profile

Dr. Vito Conforti

Research Staff at INAF - Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Publications (45)

Proceedings Article | 11 September 2024 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

Status of the small-sized telescopes programme for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory

A. Trois, J. Douneaux, S. Scuderi, R. White, G. Tagliaferri, L. Proserpio, G. Tosti, P. Bruno, J. Cailleux, V. Conforti, A. El Mouden, F. De Frondat, C. Gargano, S. Germani, F. Gianotti, G. Giavitto, V. Giordano, L. Grassi, S. Iovenitti, P. Laporte, N. La Palombara, L. Lessio, G. Leto, A. Marchetti, R. Millul, C. Molfese, F. Russo, F. Saturni, G. Sironi, A. Antonelli, S. Funk, J. Hinton, G. Pareschi, H. Sol, M. Able, P. Attinà, M. Barcelo, A. Baryshev, P Chadwick, D. Depaoli, S. Einecke, J. Lapington, S. Lee, A. Okumura, E. Rol, G. Rowell, J. Schaefer, I. Sofia, H. Tajima, J. Watson, F. Wohlleben, R. Zanmar Sanchez, A. Zink, M. Balbo, S. Bang, M. Bekema, G. Bellassai, D. Berge, C. Bigongiari, G. Bonnoli, A. Brown, A. Bulgarelli, M. Cappi, P. Caraveo, G. Cotter, P. Cristofari, D. Falceta-Gonçalves, E. De Gouveia Dal Pino, N. De Simone, M. del Valle, C. Fermino, A. Giuliani, T. Greenshaw, G. Kowal, S. Lloyd, S. Lombardi, F. Lucarelli, E. Martinetti, T. Mineo, A. Nayak, W. Oughton, M. Penno, C. Righi, D. Ross, C. Rulten, R. Santos-Lima, B. Schwab, V. Sliusar, A. Stamerra, M. Takahashi, F. Tavecchio, M. Vecchi, S. Vercellone, J. Vink, R. Walter, L. Zampieri, A. Zech

Proceedings Volume 13094, 130943Y (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019790

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Cameras, Design, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Mirrors, Silicon photomultipliers, Control systems, Prototyping, Observatories, Imaging systems

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Proceedings Article | 5 September 2024 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

Performance of the image persistence model for Euclid infrared detectors

B. Kubik, R. Barbier, G. Smadja, S. Ferriol, Y. Conseil, Y. Copin, W. Gillard, S. Dusini, K. Jahnke, E. Prieto, N. Auricchio, E. Balbi, A. Balestra, P. Battaglia, V. Capobianco, R. Chary, L. Corcione, F. Cogato, G. Delucchi, E. Franceschi, L. Gabarra, F. Gianotti, F. Grupp, E. Lentini, S. Ligori, E. Medinaceli, G. Morgante, K. Paterson, E. Romelli, L. Sauniere, M. Schirmer, C. Sirignano, G. Testera, M. Trifoglio, A. Troja, L. Valenziano, M. Frailis, M. Scodeggio, J.-C. Barriere, M. Berthe, C. Bodendorf, A. Caillat, M. Carle, R. Casas, H. Cho, A. Costille, F. Ducret, B. Garilli, W. Holmes, F. Hormuth, A. Hornstrup, M. Jhabvala, R. Kohley, D. Le Mignant, P. Lilje, I. Lloro, C. Padilla, G. Polenta, J.-C. Salvignol, G. Seidel, B. Serra, A. Secroun, L. Stanco, R. Toledo-Moreo, S. Anselmi, E. Borsato, L. Caillat, C. Colodro-Conde, V. Conforti, J. Davies, A. Renzi, F. Dal Corso, S. Davini, A. Derosa, J. Diaz, S. Di Domizio, D. Di Ferdinando, R. Farinelli, A. Ferrari, F. Fornari, F. Giacomini, O. Krause, F. Laudisio, J. Macias-Perez, J. Marpaud, N. Mauri, R. da Silva, M. Niclas, F. Passalacqua, I. Risso, P. Lagier, A. Sorensen, P. Stassi, J. Steinwagner, M. Tenti, C. Thizy, S. Tosi, R. Travaglini, O. Tubio, C. Valieri, S. Ventura, C. Vescovi, J. Zoubian

Proceedings Volume 13103, 1310315 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3014312

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Signal detection, Data modeling, Staring arrays, Electrons, Astronomy, Superposition, Spectroscopy, Infrared detectors, Calibration

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Proceedings Article | 28 August 2024 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

A new version of the stellar intensity interferometry instrument for the ASTRI Mini-Array telescopes

Luca Zampieri, Michele Fiori, Carmelo Gargano, Luigi Lessio, Gabriele Rodeghiero, Giovanni Bonanno, Pietro Bruno, Giampiero Naletto, Lorenzo Paoletti, Giuseppe Romeo, Alessia Spolon, Andrea Bulgarelli, Vito Conforti, Fulvio Gianotti, Alessandro Grillo, Marco Landoni, Saverio Lombardi, Fabrizio Lucarelli, Nicolò Parmiggiani, Claudio Pernechele, Maria Cristina Timpanaro, Valentina Giordano, Giovanni Pareschi, Salvatore Scuderi, Gino Tosti

Proceedings Volume 13095, 130950J (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019963

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Telescopes, Stars, Equipment, Silicon photomultipliers, Stellar interferometry, Optical fibers, Signal to noise ratio, Picosecond phenomena, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes

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Proceedings Article | 23 August 2024 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

Euclid commissioning results: the near infrared spectrometer and photometer (NISP) signal detection chain

F. Cogato, E. Medinaceli Villegas, R. Barbier, S. Dusini, W. Gillard, K. Jahnke, N. Auricchio, E. Balbi, A. Balestra, P. Battaglia, D. Bonino, V. Capobianco, R. Chary, S. Conseil, L. Corcione, G. Delucchi, R. Farinelli, S. Ferriol, E. Franceschi, L. Gabarra, F. Gianotti, F. Grupp, E. Lentini, S. Ligori, G. Morgante, K. Paterson, E. Romelli, L. Sauniere, M. Schirmer, C. Sirignaro, G. Sirri, G. Testera, M. Trifoglio, A. Troja, L. Valenziano, Y. Copin, M. Frailis, B. Kubik, M. Scodeggio, J.-C. Barriere, M. Berthe, C. Bodendorf, A. Caillat, M. Carle, R. Casas, H. Cho, A. Costille, F. Ducret, B. Garilli, W. Holmes, F. Hormuth, A. Hornstrup, M. Jhabvala, R. Kohley, D. Le Mignant, P. Lilje, I. Lloro, C. Padilla, G. Polenta, J.-C. Salvignol, G. Seidel, B. Serra, A. Secroun, G. Smadja, L. Stanco, P. Strada, R. Toledo-Moreo, S. Anselmi, E. Borsato, L. Caillat, C. Colodro-Conde, V. Conforti, J. Davies, A. Renzi, F. Dal Corso, S. Davini, A. De Rosa, J. Diaz, S. Di Domizio, D. Di Ferdinando, A. Ferrari, F. Fornari, F. Giacomini, O. Krause, F. Laudisio, J. Macias-Perez, J. Marpaud, N. Mauri, R. da Silva, M. Niclas, F. Passalacqua, I. Risso, P. Lagier, A. Sorensen, P. Stassi, J. Steinwagner, M. Tenti, C. Thizy, S. Tosi, R. Travaglini, O. Tubio, C. Valieri, S. Ventura, C. Vescovi, J. Zoubian

Proceedings Volume 13092, 130923G (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017952

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Signal detection, Equipment, Calibration, Staring arrays, Data processing, Space operations, Spectroscopy, Galactic astronomy, Chromium

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Proceedings Article | 25 July 2024 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

The software version control procedure for the array control and data acquisition software of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory

V. Conforti, H. Gasparyan, B. Lopez, D. Neise, I. Oya

Proceedings Volume 13101, 1310127 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017802

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Control software, Software development, Telescopes, Observatories, Data acquisition, Astronomy, Lanthanum, Interfaces, Control systems

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Proceedings Article | 25 July 2024 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

A reliable and automated orchestrator for the computing system of the ASTRI project

I. Abu, F. Gianotti, M. Lodi, G. Malaspina, M. De Benedetto, F. Fiordoliva, M. Costi, G. Mancini, M. Sardo, M. Rosi, A. Bulgarelli, L. Castaldini, A. Tacchini, V. Conforti, A. Costa, V. Fioretti, S. Gallozzi, F. Lucarelli, K. Munari, N. Parmiggiani, V. Pastore, F. Russo, S. Scuderi, G. Tosti, M. Trifoglio

Proceedings Volume 13101, 131013B (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018971

KEYWORDS: Printed circuit board testing, Telescopes, Data storage, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Data acquisition, Computing systems, Reliability, Observatories, Data transmission, Astronomy

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The ASTRI (”Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana”) program, led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), is an international collaboration focused on developing and operating an array of nine 4-meter class, dual-mirror Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). These telescopes are designed to detect gamma-ray radiation at energies above 1 TeV. The ASTRI Mini-Array is being constructed at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Canary Islands. To support the development, installation, and operation of the ASTRI Mini-Array, a dedicated on-site Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure has been designed. This ICT infrastructure hosts the Computing System for the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) software, which monitors, controls, and acquires data from the ASTRI Mini-Array telescopes and associated auxiliary hardware. The deployment model for SCADA is based on a combination of containers, bare metal servers, and virtual machines, all of which communicate seamlessly. Containerization techniques, paired with advanced orchestration systems such as Kubernetes, enhance the system’s efficiency. In this paper, we detail the virtual and containerized environment system, which employs the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in conjunction with a container orchestration system. IaC enhances portability, automation, agility, and version control, while the orchestration system automates deployment, scalability, load balancing, resource management, recovery, and container version management. Together, IaC and container orchestration significantly simplify the infrastructure and application management. IaC automates the provisioning of basic infrastructure, while container orchestration ensures that containerized applications run efficiently and reliably. This architecture allows us to manage the entire SCADA system with ease, enabling rapid deployment of the entire system—both the environment and applications—at the Teide Observatory or other test sites.

Proceedings Article | 25 July 2024 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

Methodology for the integration of the array control and data acquisition system with array elements of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory

B. Lopez, P. Aubert, L. Baroncelli, P. Bolle, P. Bruno, A. Bulgarelli, S. Caroff, L. Castaldini, V. Conforti, A. Costa, L. David, G. De Cesare, E. de Ona Wilhelm, A. Di Piano, K. Egberts, R. Fernandez, V. Fioretti, S. Fukami, E. Garcia, H. Gasparyan, S. Germani, F. Incardona, D. Kostunin, E. Lyard, G. Maurin, D. Melkumyan, K. Munari, T. Murach, A. Muraczewski, N. Nakhjiri, D. Neise, I. Oya, G. Panebianco, N. Parmiggiani, V. Pollet, I. Sadeh, S. Sah, A. Sarkar, M. Schefer, T. Schmidt, D. Soldevila, C. Steppa, A. Tramacere, R. Valles, T. Vuillaume, F. Werner

Proceedings Volume 13101, 131010H (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017493

KEYWORDS: Integration, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Observatories, Data acquisition, Control systems, Software development

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is the next-generation atmospheric Cherenkov gammaray Observatory. CTAO will be constructed on two sites, one array in the Northern and the other in the Southern hemisphere, containing telescopes of three different sizes, for covering different energy domains. To combine and orchestrate the different telescopes and auxiliary instruments (array elements), the Array Control and Data Acquisition (ACADA) system is the central element for the Observatory on-site operations: it controls, supervises, and handles the data generated by the array elements. Considering the criticality of the ACADA system for future Observatory operations, corresponding quality assurance provisions have been made at the different steps of the software development lifecycle, with focus on continuous integration and testing at all levels. To enable higher-level tests of the software deployed on a distributed system, an ACADA test cluster has been set up to facilitate testing and debugging of issues in a more realistic environment. Furthermore, a separate software integration and test cluster has also been established that allows for the off-site testing of the integrated software packages of ACADA and of the corresponding array elements. Here the software integration can be prepared, interfaces and interactions can be tested, and on-site procedures that are required later in the process can be checked beforehand, only limited by the simulation capabilities that are delivered as part of the software packages. Once preparations and testing with the off-site test cluster are completed, the integrated software can be deployed at the target site. The software packages and setup parameters are kept under configuration control at all stages, and deployment steps are documented to ensure that installations are reproducible. This methodology has been applied for the first time in the context of the integration of ACADA with the first CTAO Large-sized Telescope (LST-1) in October 2023.

Proceedings Article | 25 July 2024 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

ASTRI Mini-Array on-site information and communication technology infrastructure

F. Gianotti, I. Abu, M. Lodi, A. Tacchini, G. Malaspina, M. De Benedetto, F. Fiordoliva, M. Costi, G. Mancini, D. Gregori, M. Pinetti, M. Sardo, D. Fuzzati, M. Rosi, D. Obbi, P. Bruno, A. Bulgarelli, L. Castaldini, V. Conforti, A. Costa, V. Fioretti, S. Gallozzi, C. Grivel, F. Incardona, G. Leto, F. Lucarelli, K. Munari, N. Parmiggiani, V. Pastore, F. Russo, S. Scuderi, G. Tosti, M. Trifoglio

Proceedings Volume 13101, 1310136 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018973

KEYWORDS: Printed circuit board testing, Telescopes, Switches, Connectors, Control systems, Internet, Data acquisition, Data centers, Cameras, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes

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The ASTRI ("Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana") is a collaborative international effort led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) for developing an array of nine 4m-class dual-mirror Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) sensitive to gamma-ray radiation at energies above 1 TeV. The array is placed at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. In order to support the development, installation, and operations of the ASTRI Mini-Array, an on-site Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure has been designed. This paper describes the design of this ICT infrastructure, which includes various subsystems dedicated primarily to host the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software whose aim is to control and monitor the array of telescopes and to perform data acquisition and data quality control. For each subsystem, the best technology solutions were chosen. A dedicated Virtual System based on ProxMox for telescope control, to ensure the easy control and management combined with high reliability and continuity of service was implemented. To ensure the throughput of tens of MB/s the data acquisition and dispatch operations were realized bare metal from the camera and frontier server, combined with a dedicated BeeGFS-based storage system to ensure the necessary performance and provide a distributed, shared and concurrent filesystem. The high performances of the online data quality control and of the Monitoring System are guaranteed by a Kubernetes Technology approach, which also improves the automation, the scaling and deployment. These subsystems and ASTRI telescopes are interconnected by the high-performance network, so special attention has been focused on the network topology to ensure both reliability and data transfer throughput, both in the local network and for transmission to the remote archive facility in Rome where the data are transferred as soon as they are available. The entire ICT infrastructure was engineered to have no Single Point of Failure (SPOF) and to ensure high availability, because there will be no one dedicated to its maintenance on-site at Teide and during the night. Therefore, all the most critical systems have been designed in hot redundancy, that is, capable of supporting a failure without service interruption.

Proceedings Article | 25 July 2024 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

The first release of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory array control and data acquisition software

I. Oya, P. Aubert, L. Baroncelli, P. Bolle, P. Bruno, A. Bulgarelli, S. Caroff, L. Castaldini, V. Conforti, A. Costa, L. David, G. De Cesare, E. de Ona Wilhelmli, A. Di Piano, K. Egberts, R. Fernandez, V. Fioretti, S. Fukami, E. Garcia, E. García, H. Gasparyan, S. Germani, C. Hoischen, F. Incardona, D. Kostunin, B. Lopez, E. Lyard, G. Maurin, D. Melkumyan, K. Munari, T. Murach, A. Muraczewski, N. Nakhjiri, D. Neise, G. Panebianco, N. Parmiggiani, E. Pietriga, V. Pollet, I. Sadeh, S. Sah, A. Sarkar, M. Schefer, T. Schmidt, D. Soldevila, C. Steppa, D. Torres, A. Tramacere, R. Vallés, T. Vuillaume, F. Werner

Proceedings Volume 13101, 131011D (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017568

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Data acquisition, Control systems, Observatories, Design, Astronomy

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is the next-generation atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray project. CTAO will be deployed at two sites, one in the Northern and the other in the Southern Hemisphere, containing telescopes of three different sizes for covering different energy domains. The commissioning of the first CTAO Large-sized Telescope (LST-1) is being finalized at the CTAO Northern site. Additional calibration and environmental monitoring instruments such as laser imaging detection and ranging (LIDAR) instruments and weather stations will support the telescope operations. The Array Control and Data Acquisition (ACADA) system is the central element for onsite CTAO operations. ACADA controls, supervises, and handles the data generated by the telescopes and the auxiliary instruments. It will drive the efficient planning and execution of observations while handling the several Gb/s camera data generated by each CTAO telescope. The ACADA system contains the CTAO Science Alert Generation Pipeline – a real-time data processing and analysis pipeline, dedicated to the automatic generation of science alert candidates as data are being acquired. These science alerts, together with external alerts arriving from other scientific instruments, will be managed by the Transients Handler (TH) component. The TH informs the Short-term Scheduler of ACADA about interesting science alerts, enabling the modification of ongoing observations at sub-minute timescales. The capacity for such fast reactions – together with the fast movement of CTAO telescopes – makes CTAO an excellent instrument for studying high-impact astronomical transient phenomena. The ACADA software is based on the Alma Common Software (ACS) framework, and written in C++, Java, Python, and Javascript. The first release of the ACADA software, ACADA REL1, was finalized in July 2023, and integrated after a testing campaign with the LST-1 finalized in October 2023. This contribution describes the design and status of the ACADA software system.

SPIE Journal Paper | 23 January 2024 Open Access

Open Access

Software architecture and development approach for the ASTRI Mini-Array project at the Teide Observatory

Andrea Bulgarelli, Fabrizio Lucarelli, Gino Tosti, Vito Conforti, Nicolò Parmiggiani, Joseph Hillary Schwarz, Juan Guillermo Alvarez Gallardo, Lucio Angelo Antonelli, Mauricio Araya, Matteo Balbo, Leonardo Baroncelli, Ciro Bigongiari, Pietro Bruno, Milvia Capalbi, Martina Cardillo, Guillermo Andres Rodriguez Castillo, Osvaldo Catalano, Antonio Alessio Compagnino, Mattia Corpora, Alessandro Costa, Silvia Crestan, Giuseppe Cusumano, Antonino D’Aì, Valentina Fioretti, Stefano Gallozzi, Stefano Germani, Fulvio Gianotti, Valentina Giordano, Andrea Giuliani, Alessandro Grillo, Isaias Huerta, Federico Incardona, Simone Iovenitti, Nicola La Palombara, Valentina La Parola, Marco Landoni, Saverio Lombardi, Maria Cettina Maccarone, Rachele Millul, Teresa Mineo, Gabriela Montenegro, Davide Mollica, Kevin Munari, Antonio Pagliaro, Giovanni Pareschi, Valerio Pastore, Matteo Perri, Fabio Pintore, Patrizia Romano, Federico Russo, Ricardo Zanmar Sanchez, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Francesco Gabriele Saturni, Nestor Sayes, Eva Sciacca, Vitalii Sliusar, Salvatore Scuderi, Alessandro Tacchini, Vincenzo Testa, Massimo Trifoglio, Antonio Tutone, Stefano Vercellone, Roland Walter, for the ASTRI Project

JATIS, Vol. 10, Issue 01, 017001, (January 2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.10.1.017001

KEYWORDS: Software development, Telescopes, Data modeling, Computer architecture, Control systems, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Data acquisition, Data archive systems, Design, Cameras

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

The ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov camera: improvements on the hardware and software components

Giuseppe Sottile, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Carmelo Gargano, Fabio Paolo Lo Gerfo, Mattia Corpora, Osvaldo Catalano, Milvia Capalbi, Teresa Mineo, Giovanni Contino, Benedetto Biondo, Giuseppe Leto, Salvatore Garozzo, Davide Marano, Alessandro Grillo, Fabio D'Anca, Vito Conforti, Fulvio Gianotti, Giovanni Pareschi, Salvatore Scuderi

Proceedings Volume 12188, 1218830 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629634

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Calibration, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Field programmable gate arrays, Data acquisition, Electronics, Imaging systems, Photodetectors

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

Design and development of the Supervisor software component for the ASTRI Mini-Array Cherenkov Camera

Mattia Corpora, Alessandro Grillo, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Milvia Capalbi, Osvaldo Catalano, Giuseppe Sottile, Gino Tosti, Andrea Bulgarelli, Fabrizio Lucarelli, Nicolò Parmiggiani, Joseph Hilary Schwarz, Federico Russo, Vito Conforti, Salvatore Scuderi

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121891Z (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629350

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Control systems, Telescopes, Calibration, Imaging systems, Software development, Electronics

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

ASTRI Mini-Array on-site Information and Communication Technology infrastructure

F. Gianotti, M. Lodi, V. Conforti, A. Tacchini, A. Bulgarelli, P. Bruno, A. Costa, A. De Rosa, S. Gallozzi, S. Germani, F. Incardona, G. Leto, F. Lucarelli, G. Malaspina, K. Munari, N. Parmiggiani, V. Pastore, F. Russo, S. Scuderi, G. Tosti

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121891D (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629831

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Printed circuit board testing, Control systems, Internet, Switches, Observatories, Data centers, Cameras, Gamma radiation

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

The data processing, simulation, and archive systems of the ASTRI Mini-Array project

Saverio Lombardi, Fabrizio Lucarelli, Ciro Bigongiari, Stefano Gallozzi, Martina Cardillo, Michele Mastropietro, Francesco Gabriele Saturni, Francesco Visconti, Lucio Angelo Antonelli, Andrea Bulgarelli, Milvia Capalbi, Osvaldo Catalano, Antonio Alessio Compagnino, Vito Conforti, Silvia Crestan, Giancarlo Cusumano, Antonino D'aì, Stefano Germani, Andrea Giuliani, Simone Iovenitti, Valentina La Parola, Maria Concetta Maccarone, Teresa Mineo, Davide Mollica, Antonio Pagliaro, Nicolò Parmiggiani, Matteo Perri, Fabio Pintore, Salvatore Scuderi, Gino Tosti, Stefano Vercellone, Luca Zampieri

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121890P (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629362

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Data archive systems, Calibration, Data centers, Data processing, Monte Carlo methods, Data storage, Device simulation, Data acquisition

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

The Array Data Acquisition System software architecture of the ASTRI Mini-Array project

Vito Conforti, Fulvio Gianotti, Valerio Pastore, Massimo Trifoglio, Andrea Bulgarelli, Antonio Addis, Leonardo Baroncelli, Milvia Capalbi, Valentina Fioretti, Nicolò Parmiggiani, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Mattia Corpora, Osvaldo Catalano, Alessandro Costa, Federico Incardona, F. Russo

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121890N (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2626600

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Cameras, Data acquisition, Telescopes, Computer architecture, Binary data, Double positive medium, Data storage, Data conversion, Control systems, Astronomical software, Software

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

The Software Architecture and development approach for the ASTRI Mini-Array gamma-ray air-Cherenkov experiment at the Observatorio del Teide

A. Bulgarelli, F. Lucarelli, G. Tosti, V. Conforti, N. Parmiggiani, J. H. Schwarz, L. A. Antonelli, L. Baroncelli, C. Bigongiari, M. Capalbi, M. Cardillo, G. A. Rodriguez Castillo, O. Catalano, A. A. Compagnino, M. Corpora, A. Costa, S. Crestan, G. Cusumano, A. D'Ai', V. Fioretti, S. Gallozzi, S. Germani, F. Gianotti, V. Giordano, A. Giuliani, P. G. Bruno, J. G. Green, A. Grillo, F. Incardona, S. Iovenitti, N. La Palombara, V. La Parola, M. Landoni, S. Lombardi, M. C. Maccarone, R. Millul, T. Mineo, D. Mollica, A. Pagliaro, G. Pareschi, V. Pastore, M. Perri, F. Pintore, P. Romano, F. Russo, P. Sangiorgi, F. G. Saturni, E. Sciacca, S. Scuderi, A. Tacchini, V. Testa, M. Trifoglio, A. Tutone, S. Vercellone

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121890D (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629164

KEYWORDS: Data modeling, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Control systems, Software development, Telescopes, Data processing, Data archive systems, Data acquisition, Calibration, Computer architecture

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

The online observation quality system software architecture for the ASTRI Mini-Array project

N. Parmiggiani, A. Bulgarelli, L. Baroncelli, A. Addis, V. Fioretti, A. Di Piano, M. Capalbi, O. Catalano, V. Conforti, M. Fiori, F. Gianotti, S. Iovenitti, F. Lucarelli, M. C. Maccarone, T. Mineo, S. Lombardi, V. Pastore, F. Russo, P. Sangiorgi, S. Scuderi, G. Tosti, M. Trifoglio, L. Zampieri

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121892H (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629278

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Data acquisition, Cameras, Control systems, Telescopes, Interferometry, Data centers, Software development, Computer architecture, Quality systems

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

The monitoring, logging, and alarm system of the ASTRI mini-array gamma-ray air-Cherenkov experiment at the Observatorio del Teide

Federico Incardona, Alessandro Costa, Kevin Munari, Salvatore Gambadoro, Stefano Germani, Pietro Bruno, Andrea Bulgarelli, Vito Conforti, Fulvio Gianotti, Alessandro Grillo, Valerio Pastore, Federico Russo, Joseph Schwarz, Gino Tosti, Salvatore Cavalieri

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121891E (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629887

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Data modeling, Databases, Data acquisition, Information technology, Gamma radiation, Data archive systems, Control systems, Computer architecture

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

The telescope control system for the ASTRI Mini-Array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes

Federico Russo, Gino Tosti, Pietro Bruno, Andrea Bulgarelli, Fulvio Gianotti, Nicoló Parmiggiani, Milvia Capalbi, Vito Conforti, Mattia Corpora, Alessandro Costa, Michele Fiori, Stefano Germani, Alessandro Grillo, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Joseph Schwarz, Salvatore Scuderi, Luca Zampieri, Federico Incardona, Kevin Munari, Valerio Pastore

Proceedings Volume 12189, 121892I (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629943

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Control systems, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Human-machine interfaces, Connectors, Safety, Cameras, Telecommunications, Imaging systems, Computer architecture

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

Array data acquisition system interface for online distribution of acquired data in the ASTRI Mini-Array project

Valerio Pastore, Vito Conforti, Fulvio Gianotti, Andrea Bulgarelli, Nicolò Parmiggiani, Federico Incardona, Alessandro Costa, Federico Russo

Proceedings Volume 12189, 1218924 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629922

KEYWORDS: Data acquisition, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Cameras, Telescopes, Computer programming, Telecommunications, Quality systems, Prototyping

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Proceedings Article | 26 August 2022 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

A stellar intensity interferometry instrument for the ASTRI Mini-Array telescopes

Luca Zampieri, Giovanni Bonanno, Pietro Bruno, Carmelo Gargano, Luigi Lessio, Giampiero Naletto, Lorenzo Paoletti, Gabriele Rodeghiero, Giuseppe Romeo, Andrea Bulgarelli, Vito Conforti, Michele Fiori, Stefano Gallozzi, Fulvio Gianotti, Alessandro Grillo, Marco Landoni, Saverio Lombardi, Fabrizio Lucarelli, Aldo Morselli, Giovanni Occhipinti, Nicolò Parmiggiani, Claudio Pernechele, Gonzalo Rodriguez Fernandez, Federico Russo, Giorgia Sironi, Maria Cristina Timpanaro, Valentina Giordano, Giovanni Pareschi, Salvatore Scuderi, Gino Tosti

Proceedings Volume 12183, 121830F (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629270

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Stars, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Photons, Interferometry, Spatial resolution, Sensors, Photon counting, Optical filters, Electronics

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Proceedings Article | 25 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Poster + Paper

The product assurance programme of the ASTRI Mini-Array project

N. La Palombara, V. Conforti, V. Giordano, G. Sironi, A. Giuliani, C. Grivel, R. Millul, G. Pareschi, S. Scuderi, G. Tosti

Proceedings Volume 12187, 121871I (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629261

KEYWORDS: Inspection, Manufacturing, Mirrors, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Control systems, Packaging, Software development, Observatories, Cameras

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Proceedings Article | 13 December 2020 Poster + Presentation

Poster + Presentation

Architectural design and prototype for the logging, monitoring, and alarm system for the ASTRI mini-array

Alessandro Costa, Gino Tosti, Joseph Schwarz, Pietro Bruno, Andrea Bulgarelli, Antonio Calanducci, Vito Conforti, Stefano Germani, Fulvio Gianotti, Alessandro Grillo, Federico Incardona, Kevin Munari, Federico Russo, Eva Sciacca, Fabio Vitello

Proceedings Volume 11452, 1145229 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2560697

KEYWORDS: Astrophysics

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Proceedings Article | 9 September 2019 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

The innovative Cherenkov camera based on SiPM sensors of the ASTRI-Horn telescope: from the T/M and electrical design to the full assembly and testing in a harsh environment

Rodolfo Canestrari, Carmelo Gargano, Giuseppe Sottile, Benedetto Biondo, Giovanni Bonanno, Pietro Bruno, Milvia Capalbi, Osvaldo Catalano, Vito Conforti, Salvatore Garozzo, Fulvio Gianotti, Salvatore Giarrusso, Enrico Giro, Alessandro Grillo, Domenico Impiombato, Giovanni La Rosa, Maria Concetta Maccarone, Davide Marano, Teresa Mineo, Giovanni Pareschi, Giuseppe Romeo, Francesco Russo, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Salvatore Scuderi, Alberto Segreto, Giorgia Sironi

Proceedings Volume 11114, 111140A (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2528153

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Sensors, Telescopes, Electronics, Field programmable gate arrays, Imaging systems, Observatories, Calibration

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Proceedings Article | 6 July 2018 Presentation + Paper

Presentation + Paper

Software testing for the CTA observation execution system

Thomas Murach, Anze Zagar, Urban Leben, Igor Oya, Matthias Füßling, Dejan Dezman, Vito Conforti, Fabian Krack, Etienne Lyard, David Melkumyan, Klemens Mosshammer, Iftach Sadeh, Torsten Schmidt, Ullrich Schwanke, Joseph Schwarz, Stephan Wiesand

Proceedings Volume 10707, 107070D (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2313437

KEYWORDS: Software development, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, System integration, Process modeling, Java, Control systems, Data storage, Computer architecture, Lead

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Proceedings Article | 6 July 2018 Paper

Paper

The DAQ system support to the AIV activities of the ASTRI camera proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

V. Conforti, F. Gianotti, M. Trifoglio, A. Bulgarelli, V. Fioretti, O. Catalano, M. Capalbi, P. Sangiorgi

Proceedings Volume 10707, 1070724 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312131

KEYWORDS: Data acquisition, Cameras, Telescopes

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the next generation ground-based observatory for very high-energy gamma rays, is being built and will be operated by an international consortium. Two arrays will be located in the northern and southern hemispheres. Each telescope array will operate different numbers and types of telescopes. The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is leading the ASTRI (Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) project in the framework of the small size class of telescopes (SST). A first goal of the ASTRI project is the realization of an end-to-end prototype in dual-mirror configuration (SST-2M). The ASTRI camera focal plane is composed of a matrix of silicon photo-multiplier sensors managed by innovative front-end and back-end electronics. The ASTRI SST2M prototype is installed in Italy at the INAF “M.G. Fracastoro” observing station located at Serra La Nave, 1735 m a.s.l. on Mount Etna, Sicily. The ASTRI Data AcQuisition (DAQ) system acquires, packet by packet, the camera data from the back-end electronics. The packets are then stored locally in one raw file as soon as they arrive. During the acquisition, the DAQ system groups the packets by data type (scientific, calibration, engineering) before processing and storing the data in FITS format. All the files are then transferred to the on-site archive. In addition, we implemented a quick-look component the allows the operator to display the camera data during the acquisition. A graphical user interface enables the operator to configure, monitor and control the DAQ software. Furthermore, we implemented the control panel algorithms within the framework of the Alma Common Software, in order to integrate the DAQ software within the ASTRI control software. The ASTRI DAQ system supports the camera AIV activities and operations. We provide the instrument workstation to support the AIV activities in the laboratory, and the camera server on-site. In this paper, we assess the ASTRI DAQ system as it has performed the AIV tasks for the ASTRI SST-2M prototype.

Proceedings Article | 6 July 2018 Paper

Paper

The ACS/OPC-UA based ICT infrastructure monitoring system of the ASTRI SST-2M prototype proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

F. Gianotti, P. Bruno, A. Grillo, V. Conforti, M. Trifoglio, F. Russo, F. Fagioli, A. Tacchini, G. Tosti, G. Leto

Proceedings Volume 10707, 1070730 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314140

KEYWORDS: Printed circuit board testing, Telescopes, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Prototyping, Control systems, Astronomical telescopes, Human-machine interfaces, Systems engineering, Space telescopes, Telecommunications

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Proceedings Article | 6 July 2018 Paper

Paper

The ASTRI camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Osvaldo Catalano, Milvia Capalbi, Carmelo Gargano, Salvo Giarrusso, Domenico Impiombato, Giovanni La Rosa, Maria Concetta Maccarone, Teresa Mineo, Francesco Russo, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Alberto Segreto, Giuseppe Sottile, Benedetto Biondo, Giovanni Bonanno, Salvatore Garozzo, Alessandro Grillo, Davide Marano, Giuseppe Romeo, Salvatore Scuderi, Rodolfo Canestrari, Paolo Conconi, Enrico Giro, Giovanni Pareschi, Giorgia Sironi, Vito Conforti, Fulvio Gianotti, Renato Gimenes

Proceedings Volume 10702, 1070237 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314984

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Calibration, Prototyping, Sensors, Electronics, Control systems, Mirrors, Signal detection

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Proceedings Article | 22 August 2016 Paper

Paper

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory: top level use cases

A. Bulgarelli, K. Kosack, J. Hinton, G. Tosti, U. Schwanke, J. Schwarz, P. Colomé, V. Conforti, B. Khelifi, J. Goullon, R. Ong, S. Markoff, J. L. Contreras, F. Lucarelli, L. Antonelli, C. Bigongiari, C. Boisson, Z. Bosnjak, S. Brau-Nogué, A. Carosi, A. Chen, G. Cotter, S. Covino, M. Daniel, G. De Cesare, E. de Ona Wilhelmi, M. Della Volpe, F. Di Pierro, V. Fioretti, M. Füßling, M. Garczarczyk, M. Gaug, J. F. Glicenstein, P. Goldoni, D. Götz, P. Grandi, M. Heller, G. Hermann, S. Inoue, J. Knödlseder, J.-P. Lenain, E. Lindfors, S. Lombardi, P. Luque-Escamilla, G. Maier, M. Marisaldi, C. Mundell, N. Neyroud, K. Noda, P. O'Brien, P. O. Petrucci, J. Martí Ribas, M. Ribó, J. Rodriguez, P. Romano, J. Schmid, N. Serre, H. Sol, F. Schussler, A. Stamerra, T. Stolarczyk, J. Vandenbrouck, S. Vercellone, S. Vergani, A. Zech, A. Zoli

Proceedings Volume 9913, 991331 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232224

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Software development, Astronomy, Software engineering, Physics, Telecommunications, Error analysis, Galactic astronomy

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Today the scientific community is facing an increasing complexity of the scientific projects, from both a technological and a management point of view. The reason for this is in the advance of science itself, where new experiments with unprecedented levels of accuracy, precision and coverage (time and spatial) are realised. Astronomy is one of the fields of the physical sciences where a strong interaction between the scientists, the instrument and software developers is necessary to achieve the goals of any Big Science Project. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the largest ground-based very high-energy gamma-ray observatory of the next decades. To achieve the full potential of the CTA Observatory, the system must be put into place to enable users to operate the telescopes productively. The software will cover all stages of the CTA system, from the preparation of the observing proposals to the final data reduction, and must also fit into the overall system. Scientists, engineers, operators and others will use the system to operate the Observatory, hence they should be involved in the design process from the beginning. We have organised a workgroup and a workflow for the definition of the CTA Top Level Use Cases in the context of the Requirement Management activities of the CTA Observatory. Scientists, instrument and software developers are collaborating and sharing information to provide a common and general understanding of the Observatory from a functional point of view. Scientists that will use the CTA Observatory will provide mainly Science Driven Use Cases, whereas software engineers will subsequently provide more detailed Use Cases, comments and feedbacks. The main purposes are to define observing modes and strategies, and to provide a framework for the flow down of the Use Cases and requirements to check missing requirements and the already developed Use-Case models at CTA sub-system level. Use Cases will also provide the basis for the definition of the Acceptance Test Plan for the validation of the overall CTA system. In this contribution we present the organisation and the workflow of the Top Level Use Cases workgroup.

Proceedings Article | 9 August 2016 Paper

Paper

Software design and code generation for the engineering graphical user interface of the ASTRI SST-2M prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Claudio Tanci, Gino Tosti, Elisa Antolini, Giorgio Gambini, Pietro Bruno, Rodolfo Canestrari, Vito Conforti, Saverio Lombardi, Federico Russo, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Salvatore Scuderi

Proceedings Volume 9913, 99133X (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232005

KEYWORDS: Optical instrument design, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Human-machine interfaces, Prototyping, Optical instrument design, Control systems, Control systems design, Astronomical telescopes, Software development, Imaging systems

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Proceedings Article | 9 August 2016 Paper

Paper

The ASTRI mini-array software system (MASS) implementation: a proposal for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Claudio Tanci, Gino Tosti, Vito Conforti, Joseph Schwarz, Elisa Antolini, L. Antonelli, Andrea Bulgarelli, Ciro Bigongiari, Pietro Bruno, Rodolfo Canestrari, Milvia Capalbi, Enrico Cascone, Osvaldo Catalano, Andrea Di Paola, Federico Di Pierro, Valentina Fioretti, Stefano Gallozzi, Daniele Gardiol, Fulvio Gianotti, Enrico Giro, Alessandro Grillo, Nicola La Palombara, Giuseppe Leto, Saverio Lombardi, Maria Maccarone, Giovanni Pareschi, Federico Russo, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Salvo Scuderi, Luca Stringhetti, Vincenzo Testa, Massimo Trifoglio, Stefano Vercellone, Andrea Zoli

Proceedings Volume 9913, 99133L (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231294

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Data acquisition, Prototyping, Control systems, Cameras, Imaging systems, Data archive systems, Human-machine interfaces, Lanthanum

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Proceedings Article | 8 August 2016 Paper

Paper

Status of the array control and data acquisition system for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Matthias Füßling, Igor Oya, Arnim Balzer, David Berge, Jerzy Borkowski, Vito Conforti, Josep Colomé, Rico Lindemann, Etienne Lyard, David Melkumyan, Michael Punch, Ullrich Schwanke, Joseph Schwarz, Claudio Tanci, Gino Tosti, Peter Wegner, Ralf Wischnewski, Amanda Weinstein

Proceedings Volume 9913, 99133C (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233174

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Control systems, Observatories, Data acquisition, Imaging systems, Observatories, Control systems, Cameras, Prototyping, Systems modeling, Software development

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Proceedings Article | 8 August 2016 Paper

Paper

The ICT monitoring system of the ASTRI SST-2M prototype proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

F. Gianotti, P. Bruno, A. Tacchini, V. Conforti, V. Fioretti, C. Tanci, A. Grillo, G. Leto, G. Malaguti, M. Trifoglio

Proceedings Volume 9913, 99132I (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231609

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telecommunications, Printed circuit board testing, Computing systems, Prototyping, Telescopes, Optical proximity correction, Human-machine interfaces, Telecommunications, Computing systems, Control systems, Astronomical telescopes

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Proceedings Article | 8 August 2016 Paper

Paper

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Infrastructure for the ASTRI SST-2M telescope prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

F. Gianotti, A. Tacchini, G. Leto, E. Martinetti, P. Bruno, G. Bellassai, V. Conforti, S. Gallozzi, M. Mastropietro, C. Tanci, G. Malaguti, M. Trifoglio

Proceedings Volume 9913, 99132C (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2230150

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Printed circuit board testing, Control systems, Control systems, Switches, Data acquisition, Cameras, Local area networks, Computing systems, Data archive systems

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) represents the next generation of ground-based observatories for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. The CTA will consist of two arrays at two different sites, one in the northern and one in the southern hemisphere. The current CTA design foresees, in the southern site, the installation of many tens of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes of three different classes, namely large, medium and small, so defined in relation to their mirror area; the northern hemisphere array would consist of few tens of the two larger telescope types. The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is developing the Cherenkov Small Size Telescope ASTRI SST- 2M end-to-end prototype telescope within the framework of the International Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project. The ASTRI prototype has been installed at the INAF observing station located in Serra La Nave on Mt. Etna, Italy. Furthermore a mini-array, composed of nine of ASTRI telescopes, has been proposed to be installed at the Southern CTA site. Among the several different infrastructures belonging the ASTRI project, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment is dedicated to operations of computing and data storage, as well as the control of the entire telescope, and it is designed to achieve the maximum efficiency for all performance requirements. Thus a complete and stand-alone computer centre has been designed and implemented. The goal is to obtain optimal ICT equipment, with an adequate level of redundancy, that might be scaled up for the ASTRI mini-array, taking into account the necessary control, monitor and alarm system requirements. In this contribution we present the ICT equipment currently installed at the Serra La Nave observing station where the ASTRI SST-2M prototype will be operated. The computer centre and the control room are described with particular emphasis on the Local Area Network scheme, the computing and data storage system, and the telescope control and monitoring.

Proceedings Article | 8 August 2016 Paper

Paper

Pre-selecting muon events in the camera server of the ASTRI telescopes for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Maria Maccarone, Teresa Mineo, Milvia Capalbi, Vito Conforti, Martina Coffaro

Proceedings Volume 9913, 99132E (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2230835

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Muons, Cameras, Calibration, Device simulation, Atmospheric optics, Data acquisition, Image analysis, Mirrors

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) represents the next generation of ground based observatories for very high energy gamma ray astronomy. The CTA will consist of two arrays at two different sites, one in the northern and one in the southern hemisphere. The current CTA design foresees, in the southern site, the installation of many tens of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes of three different classes, namely large, medium, and small, so defined in relation to their mirror area; the northern hemisphere array would consist of few tens of the two larger telescope types. The telescopes will be equipped with cameras composed either of photomultipliers or silicon photomultipliers, and with different trigger and read-out electronics. In such a scenario, several different methods will be used for the telescopes’ calibration. Nevertheless, the optical throughput of any CTA telescope, independently of its type, can be calibrated analyzing the characteristic image produced by local atmospheric highly energetic muons that induce the emission of Cherenkov light which is imaged as a ring onto the focal plane if their impact point is relatively close to the telescope optical axis. Large sized telescopes would be able to detect useful muon events under stereo coincidence and such stereo muon events will be directly addressed to the central CTA array data acquisition pipeline to be analyzed. For the medium and small sized telescopes, due to their smaller mirror area and large inter-telescope distance, the stereo coincidence rate will tend to zero; nevertheless, muon events will be detected by single telescopes that must therefore be able to identify them as possible useful calibration candidates, even if no stereo coincidence is available. This is the case for the ASTRI telescopes, proposed as pre-production units of the small size array of the CTA, which are able to detect muon events during regular data taking without requiring any dedicated trigger. We present two fast algorithms to efficiently use uncalibrated data to recognize useful muon events within the single ASTRI camera server while keeping the number of proton induced triggers as low as possible to avoid saturating the readout budget towards the central CTA data analysis pipeline.

Proceedings Article | 29 July 2016 Paper

Paper

EGSE customization for the Euclid NISP Instrument AIV/AIT activities

E. Franceschi, M. Trifoglio, F. Gianotti, V. Conforti, J. Andersen, J. Stephen, L. Valenziano, N. Auricchio, A. Bulgarelli, A. De Rosa, V. Fioretti, E. Maiorano, G. Morgante, L. Nicastro, F. Sortino, A. Zoli, A. Balestra, D. Bonino, C. Bonoli, F. Bortoletto, V. Capobianco, L. Corcione, F. Dal Corso, S. Debei, D. Di Ferdinando, S. Dusini, R. Farinelli, F. Fornari, F. Giacomini, G. Guizzo, F. Laudisio, S. Ligori, N. Mauri, E. Medinaceli, L. Patrizii, C. Sirignano, G. Sirri, L. Stanco, M. Tenti, C. Valieri, S. Ventura

Proceedings Volume 9904, 99042T (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2234262

KEYWORDS: Space telescopes, Space operations, Telescopes, Space operations, Local area networks, Databases, Control systems, Fermium, Frequency modulation, Device simulation, Data modeling

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Proceedings Article | 29 July 2016 Paper

Paper

Instrument workstation for the EGSE of the Near Infrared Spectro-Photometer instrument (NISP) of the EUCLID mission

M. Trifoglio, F. Gianotti, V. Conforti, E. Franceschi, J. Stephen, A. Bulgarelli, V. Fioretti, E. Maiorano, L. Nicastro, L. Valenziano, A. Zoli, N. Auricchio, A. Balestra, D. Bonino, C. Bonoli, F. Bortoletto, V. Capobianco, T. Chiarusi, L. Corcione, S. Debei, A. De Rosa, S. Dusini, F. Fornari, F. Giacomini, G. Guizzo, S. Ligori, A. Margiotta, N. Mauri, E. Medinaceli, G. Morgante, L. Patrizii, C. Sirignano, G. Sirri, F. Sortino, L. Stanco, M. Tenti

Proceedings Volume 9904, 990460 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2234219

KEYWORDS: Data storage, Near infrared, Computing systems, Data processing, Sensors, Data archive systems, Data modeling, Control systems, Databases, Data conversion

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Proceedings Article | 26 July 2016 Paper

Paper

Software design of the ASTRI camera server proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Vito Conforti, Massimo Trifoglio, Fulvio Gianotti, Giuseppe Malaguti, Andrea Bulgarelli, Valentina Fioretti, Andrea Zoli, Osvaldo Catalano, Milvia Capalbi, Pierluca Sangiorgi

Proceedings Volume 9913, 99133G (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2230016

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Data acquisition, Optical instrument design, Prototyping, Optical instrument design, Receivers, Data processing, Muons, Calibration

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The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is leading the ASTRI project within the ambitious Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the next generation of ground-based observatories for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. In the framework of the small sized telescopes (SST), a first goal of the ASTRI project is the realization of an end-to-end prototype in dual-mirror configuration (2M) with the camera composed of a matrix of Silicon photo-multiplier sensors managed by innovative front-end and back-end electronics. The prototype, named ASTRI SST-2M, is installed in Italy at the INAF “M.G. Fracastoro” observing station located at Serra La Nave, 1735 m a.s.l. on Mount Etna, Sicily. As a second step, the ASTRI project is focused on the implementation of a mini-array composed at least of nine ASTRI telescopes and proposed to be placed at the CTA southern site. This paper outlines the design of the camera server software that will be installed on the ASTRI mini-array. The software is based on the version installed on the ASTRI SST-2M prototype operating in a single telescope configuration. The migration from single telescope to mini-array context has required additional interfaces in order to guarantee high interoperability with other software and hardware components. In the mini-array configuration each camera communicates with its own camera server via a dedicated high rate data link. The primary goal of the camera server is to acquire the bulk data, packet by packet, without any data loss and to timestamp each packet very precisely. During array operation, the camera server receives from the SoftWare Array Trigger (SWAT) the list of science events that participate in stereo triggered events. These science events, and all others that are flagged either by the camera as interleaved calibration or by the camera server as possible single-muon events, are sent to the Array DAQ. All remaining science events will be discarded. A suitable buffer is provided to perform this processing on all the incoming event packets. The camera server provides interfaces to the array control software to allow for monitoring and control during array operations. In this paper we present the design of the camera server software with particular emphasis on the external interfaces. In addition, we report the results of the first integration activities and performance tests.

Proceedings Article | 26 July 2016 Paper

Paper

The software architecture to control the Cherenkov Telescope Array

I. Oya, M. Füßling, P. Antonino, V. Conforti, L. Hagge, D. Melkumyan, A. Morgenstern, G. Tosti, U. Schwanke, J. Schwarz, P. Wegner, J. Colomé, E. Lyard

Proceedings Volume 9913, 991303 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232520

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Systems modeling, Chemical elements, Computer architecture, Data acquisition, Control systems, Data modeling, Calibration, Software development

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project is an initiative to build two large arrays of Cherenkov gamma- ray telescopes. CTA will be deployed as two installations, one in the northern and the other in the southern hemisphere, containing dozens of telescopes of different sizes. CTA is a big step forward in the field of ground- based gamma-ray astronomy, not only because of the expected scientific return, but also due to the order-of- magnitude larger scale of the instrument to be controlled. The performance requirements associated with such a large and distributed astronomical installation require a thoughtful analysis to determine the best software solutions. The array control and data acquisition (ACTL) work-package within the CTA initiative will deliver the software to control and acquire the data from the CTA instrumentation. In this contribution we present the current status of the formal ACTL system decomposition into software building blocks and the relationships among them. The system is modelled via the Systems Modelling Language (SysML) formalism. To cope with the complexity of the system, this architecture model is sub-divided into different perspectives. The relationships with the stakeholders and external systems are used to create the first perspective, the context of the ACTL software system. Use cases are employed to describe the interaction of those external elements with the ACTL system and are traced to a hierarchy of functionalities (abstract system functions) describing the internal structure of the ACTL system. These functions are then traced to fully specified logical elements (software components), the deployment of which as technical elements, is also described. This modelling approach allows us to decompose the ACTL software in elements to be created and the ow of information within the system, providing us with a clear way to identify sub-system interdependencies. This architectural approach allows us to build the ACTL system model and trace requirements to deliverables (source code, documentation, etc.), and permits the implementation of a flexible use-case driven software development approach thanks to the traceability from use cases to the logical software elements. The Alma Common Software (ACS) container/component framework, used for the control of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the basis for the ACTL software and as such it is considered as an integral part of the software architecture.

Proceedings Article | 26 July 2016 Paper

Paper

Software use cases to elicit the software requirements analysis within the ASTRI project

Vito Conforti, Elisa Antolini, Giacomo Bonnoli, Pietro Bruno, Andrea Bulgarelli, Milvia Capalbi, Valentina Fioretti, Dino Fugazza, Daniele Gardiol, Alessandro Grillo, Giuseppe Leto, Saverio Lombardi, Fabrizio Lucarelli, Maria Concetta Maccarone, Giuseppe Malaguti, Giovanni Pareschi, Federico Russo, Pierluca Sangiorgi, Joseph Schwarz, Salvatore Scuderi, Claudio Tanci, Gino Tosti, Massimo Trifoglio, Stefano Vercellone, Ricardo Zanmar Sanchez

Proceedings Volume 9913, 991340 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232292

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Prototyping, Telecommunications, Cameras, Data acquisition, Control systems, Calibration, Optical fiber cables, Error analysis

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The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is leading the Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana (ASTRI) project whose main purpose is the realization of small size telescopes (SST) for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The first goal of the ASTRI project has been the development and operation of an innovative end-to-end telescope prototype using a dual-mirror optical configuration (SST-2M) equipped with a camera based on silicon photo-multipliers and very fast read-out electronics. The ASTRI SST-2M prototype has been installed in Italy at the INAF “M.G. Fracastoro” Astronomical Station located at Serra La Nave, on Mount Etna, Sicily. This prototype will be used to test several mechanical, optical, control hardware and software solutions which will be used in the ASTRI mini-array, comprising nine telescopes proposed to be placed at the CTA southern site. The ASTRI mini-array is a collaborative and international effort led by INAF and carried out by Italy, Brazil and South-Africa. We present here the use cases, through UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams and text details, that describe the functional requirements of the software that will manage the ASTRI SST-2M prototype, and the lessons learned thanks to these activities. We intend to adopt the same approach for the Mini Array Software System that will manage the ASTRI miniarray operations. Use cases are of importance for the whole software life cycle; in particular they provide valuable support to the validation and verification activities. Following the iterative development approach, which breaks down the software development into smaller chunks, we have analysed the requirements, developed, and then tested the code in repeated cycles. The use case technique allowed us to formalize the problem through user stories that describe how the user procedurally interacts with the software system. Through the use cases we improved the communication among team members, fostered common agreement about system requirements, defined the normal and alternative course of events, understood better the business process, and defined the system test to ensure that the delivered software works properly. We present a summary of the ASTRI SST-2M prototype use cases, and how the lessons learned can be exploited for the ASTRI mini-array proposed for the CTA Observatory.

Proceedings Article | 25 July 2014 Paper

Paper

The ASTRI SST-2M telescope prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array: camera DAQ software architecture

Vito Conforti, Massimo Trifoglio, Andrea Bulgarelli, Fulvio Gianotti, Valentina Fioretti, Alessandro Tacchini, Andrea Zoli, Giuseppe Malaguti, Milvia Capalbi, Osvaldo Catalano

Proceedings Volume 9152, 91522D (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2054519

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Data acquisition, Data storage, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Prototyping, Telescopes, Computer architecture, Software development, Data archive systems, Data conversion

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Proceedings Article | 22 July 2014 Paper

Paper

A prototype for the real-time analysis of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Andrea Bulgarelli, Valentina Fioretti, Andrea Zoli, Alessio Aboudan, Juan José Rodríguez-Vázquez, Gernot Maier, Etienne Lyard, Denis Bastieri, Saverio Lombardi, Gino Tosti, Adriano De Rosa, Sonia Bergamaschi, Matteo Interlandi, Domenico Beneventano, Giovanni Lamanna, Jean Jacquemier, Karl Kosack, Lucio Angelo Antonelli, Catherine Boisson, Jerzy Burkowski, Sara Buson, Alessandro Carosi, Vito Conforti, Jose Luis Contreras, Giovanni De Cesare, Raquel de los Reyes, Jon Dumm, Phil Evans, Lucy Fortson, Matthias Fuessling, Ricardo Graciani, Fulvio Gianotti, Paola Grandi, Jim Hinton, Brian Humensky, Jürgen Knödlseder, Giuseppe Malaguti, Martino Marisaldi, Nadine Neyroud, Luciano Nicastro, Stefan Ohm, Julian Osborne, Simon Rosen, Alessandro Tacchini, Eleonora Torresi, Vincenzo Testa, Massimo Trifoglio, Amanda Weinstein

Proceedings Volume 9145, 91452X (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2054744

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Data acquisition, Prototyping, Cameras, Observatories, Physics, Data communications, Monte Carlo methods, Data storage

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2014 Paper

Paper

The control, monitor, and alarm system for the ICT equipment of the ASTRI SST-2M telescope prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Fulvio Gianotti, Valentina Fioretti, Claudio Tanci, Vito Conforti, Alessandro Tacchini, Giuseppe Leto, Stefano Gallozzi, Andrea Bulgarelli, Massimo Trifoglio, Giuseppe Malaguti, Andrea Zoli

Proceedings Volume 9152, 91521U (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2054713

KEYWORDS: Optical proximity correction, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Prototyping, Printed circuit board testing, Control systems, OLE for process control, Standards development, Computing systems, Internet

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2014 Paper

Paper

The ASTRI/CTA mini-array software system

Gino Tosti, Joseph Schwarz, Lucio Angelo Antonelli, Massimo Trifoglio, Osvaldo Catalano, Maria Concetta Maccarone, Giuseppe Leto, Fulvio Gianotti, Rodolfo Canestrari, Enrico Giro, Mauro Fiorini, Nicola La Palombara, Giovanni Pareschi, Luca Stringhetti, Stefano Vercellone, Vito Conforti, Claudio Tanci, Pietro Bruno, Alessandro Grillo, Vincenzo Testa, Andrea di Paola, Stefano Gallozzi

Proceedings Volume 9152, 915204 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055067

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Control systems, Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Data acquisition, Cameras, Data archive systems, Calibration, Prototyping, Imaging systems, Data storage

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Proceedings Article | 21 September 2012 Paper

Paper

Design concept of the electrical ground support equipment for the AIV and calibration of the Euclid NISP instrument

Massimo Trifoglio, Carlotta Bonoli, Favio Bortoletto, Andrea Bulgarelli, Chris. Butler, Carlos Colodro-Conde, Vito Conforti, Leonardo Corcione, Enrico Franceschi, Fulvio Gianotti, Sebastiano Ligori, Thierry Maciaszek, Gianluca Morgante, Jacinto Muñoz, Luciano Nicastro, Eric Prieto, Rafael Rebolo-López, Mario Riva, Paolo Spano, Rafael Toledo-Moreo, Luca Valenziano, Isidro Villó, Filippo Maria Zerbi

Proceedings Volume 8442, 844235 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925654

KEYWORDS: Calibration, Sensors, Interfaces, Data archive systems, Space operations, Satellites, Device simulation, Control systems, Data storage, Data acquisition

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Showing 5 of 45 publications

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