NOAO Mosaic Data-Handling System

The NOAO Mosaic CCD Camera consists of 8 CCDs producing an 8K X 8K format. The Mosaic Data Handling System (MDHS) receives data packets from the detector system and broadcasts them on a message bus. A data capture agent (DCA) receives the data and formats it into a set of distributed shared images (DSI). The images are displayed as they are received by a real-time display (RTD) and are recorded to disk as multiextension FITS (MEF) files by the DCA. The DCA triggers a data reduction agent (DRA) to do standard pipeline processing and archiving with a graphical user interface (GUI) for user interaction. The MDHS provides a suite of IRAF data reduction tools for the user and DRA to apply to the MEF mosaic data. The tools include quick-look analysis of the data in the RTD, basic CCD calibration, mosaic reconstruction, and combining of dithered observations into a fully populated (gaps removed) image.