E-ELT HIRES the high resolution spectrograph for the E-ELT: integrated data flow system

Abstract

The current E-ELT instrumentation plan foresees a High Resolution Spectrograph conventionally indicated as HIRES whose Phase A study has started in 2016. An international consortium (stemmed from the existing "HIRES initiative") is conducting a preliminary study of a modular E-ELT instrument able to provide highresolution spectroscopy (R 100; 000) in a wide wavelength range (0.37-2.5 μm). For the aims of data treatment (which encompasses both the reduction and the analysis procedures) an end-to-end approach has been adopted, to directly extract scientific information from the observations with a coherent set of interactive, properly validated software modules. This approach is favoured by the specific science objectives of the instrument, which pose unprecedented requirements in terms of measurement precision and accuracy. In this paper we present the architecture envisioned for the HIRES science software, building on the lessons learned in the development of the data analysis software for the ESPRESSO ultra-stable spectrograph for the VLT.