The upgrade of the H.E.S.S. cameras
Gianluca Giavitto
(1)
,
Terry Ashton
(2)
,
Arnim Balzer
(3)
,
David Berge
,
Francois Brun
(4)
,
Thomas Chaminade
(4)
,
Eric Delagnes
(4)
,
Gerard Fontaine
(5)
,
Matthias Füssling
(1)
,
Berrie Giebels
(5)
,
Jean-Francois Glicenstein
(4)
,
Tobias Gräber
(1)
,
Jim Hinton
,
Albert Jahnke
,
Stefan Klepser
(1)
,
Marko Kossatz
(1)
,
Axel Kretzschmann
(1)
,
Valentin Lefranc
(6)
,
Holger Leich
(1)
,
Hartmut Lüdecke
(1)
,
Iryna Lypova
(1)
,
Pascal Manigot
(5)
,
Vincent Marandon
(7)
,
Emmanuel Moulin
(4)
,
Mathieu De Naurois
(5)
,
Patrick Nayman
(6)
,
Stefan Ohm
(1)
,
Marek Penno
(1)
,
Duncan Ross
(8)
,
David Salek
,
Markus Schade
(1)
,
Thomas Schwab
,
Rachel Simoni
,
Christian Stegmann
(1)
,
Constantin Steppa
(1)
,
Julian Thornhill
(2)
,
Francois Toussnel
(6)
1
DESY -
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron [Zeuthen]
2 University of Leicester
3 GRAPPA - Gravitation AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam
4 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
5 LLR - Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet
6 LPNHE (UMR_7585) - Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies
7 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
8 Department of Computer and Information Sciences [Univ Strathclyde]
2 University of Leicester
3 GRAPPA - Gravitation AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam
4 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
5 LLR - Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet
6 LPNHE (UMR_7585) - Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies
7 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
8 Department of Computer and Information Sciences [Univ Strathclyde]
David Berge
- Fonction : Auteur
Francois Brun
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 752069
- IdHAL : francoisbrun
- ORCID : 0000-0002-1079-2385
- IdRef : 112725465
Eric Delagnes
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 841247
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8984-8299
- IdRef : 176235108
Jim Hinton
- Fonction : Auteur
Albert Jahnke
- Fonction : Auteur
David Salek
- Fonction : Auteur
Thomas Schwab
- Fonction : Auteur
Rachel Simoni
- Fonction : Auteur
Résumé
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is an array of five imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) located in Namibia. In order to assure the continuous operation of H.E.S.S. at its full sensitivity until and possibly beyond the advent of CTA, the older cameras, installed in 2003, are currently undergoing an extensive upgrade. Its goals are reducing the system failure rate, reducing the dead time and improving the overall performance of the array. All camera components have been upgraded, except the mechanical structure and the photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs). Novel technical solutions have been introduced: the upgraded readout electronics is based on the NECTAr analog memory chip; the control of the hardware is carried out by an FPGA coupled to an embedded ARM computer; the control software was re-written from scratch and it is based on modern C++ open source libraries. These hardware and software solutions offer very good performance, robustness and flexibility. The first camera was fielded in July 2015 and has been successfully commissioned; the rest is scheduled to be upgraded in September 2016. The present contribution describes the design, the testing and the performance of the new H.E.S.S. camera and its components.