DES Computing

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is designed to probe the origin of the accelerating universe and help uncover the nature of dark energy by measuring the 14-billion-year history of cosmic expansion with high precision. 

Fermilab leads the international DES collaboration, which is deploying the Dark Energy Camera on the 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in the Chilean Andes. The final petabyte-scale survey database will comprise about 300 million galaxies and will look back in time over more than half of the age of the universe. 

The Scientific Computing Division runs data simulations for mock data challenges for DES, contributes to the development of the SISPI data acquisition system and helps conduct testing for the charge coupled device -- the light senors that record images made by the telescope. The division is responsible for "survey planning strategy," the strategy for where to point the telescope at each moment during the 5 year survey so as to optimize the available observing time. In addition, it assists in scientific data analysis in support of optics, filters and calibrations, and maintains the DES document repository.

More Information: DES Home, Fermilab Experimental Astrophysics Group

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Last updated by cdweb on 10/11/2012