WoU-MMA: Operation of the HAWC Gamma Ray Observatory and US HAWC Data Analysis Center

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC) in Sierra Negra, Mexico, is a US led project that studies the sources of the most energetic light in the Universe. Known as gamma-rays, this light is emitted by some of the most extreme energy objects and environments in the universe. The detection and study of high energy gamma rays led to many exciting and important discoveries about the origin of the highest-energy light in the Universe and what that can tell us about the nature of the cosmos. This award supports the operation and maintenance of the central data archive for HAWC that is housed at the University of Maryland. It also funds the critical engineering, technical, and operational support for the remote operations of the HAWC observatory. Since 2015, HAWC has been operating continuously, both day and night, viewing 2/3 of the sky every day. It uses giant water tanks to detect these cosmic signals by capturing the showers of particles created when high-energy gamma rays interact with molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere. Every day, HAWC generates 2 Terabytes of new data, which is stored and analyzed by scientists through the US data archival facility at UMD. Through this work, we train students and postdoctoral researchers in the use of large-scale data systems, cutting-edge big data analysis techniques, and data-mining techniques, critical skills for support of the U.S. high-tech industry. This investment helps maintain US leadership in a field of high-energy astrophysics which we helped pioneer. This grant supports the operation and maintenance of the 13 PB U.S. data archive for the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory, housed at the University of Maryland. It also funds critical engineering, technical, and operational support for the HAWC Observatory itself, located at 4,100 m above sea level on the side of the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico but operated remotely from the U.S. The HAWC Observatory, the construction of which was funded by the NSF, DOE, and CONACyT (the Mexican science agency), is a wide-field, continuously operating experiment designed to detect extensive air showers initiated by TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays. Since beginning full operations in 2015, HAWC has maintained a near-continuous duty cycle, triggering at ~24 kHz and generating approximately 2 TB of raw data daily. The observatory has identified over 80 very-high-energy gamma-ray sources, including previously undetected classes such as TeV halos, microquasars, and star-forming regions. The University of Maryland hosts and operates the U.S. data and computing center for the collaboration and plays a central role in operations, monitoring, and data stewardship. Recent advances in event reconstruction and data analysis techniques have enabled the reprocessing of the past ten years of data with improved sensitivity and resolution, leading to new discoveries and enhanced source characterization. Through this work, we also train students and postdoctoral researchers in the use of large-scale data systems and cutting-edge analysis and data-mining techniques, critical skills for support of the U.S. tech industry. This investment helps maintain U.S. leadership in a field of high-energy astrophysics which we helped pioneer. This project advances the objectives of "Windows on the Universe: the Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics", one of the 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.