S-AD-M-005
Chapter 1: System Overview
January 2006—Page 31 of 35
In addition, each of the two pulse compressors located in the GCC has an associated calorimeter
that may be inserted to measure the energy going into the target chambers. These calorimeters are located
just prior to the beam combiner optic (SPHR2).
Each of the four UVDP’s will have an energy diagnostic that will measure the combined 1
~
,
2
~
, and 3
~
incident light energies. It has not been determined whether these calorimeters will be full-
aperture or subaperture devices.
1.
Control System and Joint Operations Plan
OMEGA EP is operated in a manner identical to the OMEGA Laser Facility. Existing LLE
infrastructure includes specific instructions for operations that are directly extensible to the OMEGA EP
architecture. The Laser Facility Organization and Regulation Manual (LFORM) specifies how scientific
programs are allocated system time, how system time is scheduled, how training and safety programs
within the facility are conducted, and addresses other critical operations issues. The OMEGA EP
Facility uses a four volume set of documentation for configuration management and control of operations
procedures. Volume VII describes the system architecture, Volume VIII contains all of the written
procedures for operations, Volume IX describes the startup and shutdown procedures, and Volume X
addresses the periodic maintenance program. The volumes are available from the “OMEGA Operations”
page of the LLE Web site.
The Control System for OMEGA EP is nearly identical to that in OMEGA. The primary systems
consist of beam motion control, video, and the hardware timing system. Specialized systems have been
developed to deal with new technologies such as the deformable mirrors, Shack–Hartmann wavefront
sensors, PEPC, grating alignment, and a new higher precision timing system, etc. The Control System
architecture has been modified to reflect OMEGA EP as a subservient system to OMEGA when in the
“joint” shot mode. When not shooting jointly, the two laser systems are mutually independent and capable
of independent shot operations. Figure 1.17 shows the top-level executive architecture of the systems
in joint shot mode. More detailed explanations of the Executives and shot operations are found in the
OMEGA System Operations Manual, Volume I: System Overview and Volume VII, Chap. 8: Control
System, S-AD-M-012.
Like OMEGA, the Laser Control System facilitates the operational activities that maintain the
system, prepare it for a shot, execute the shot, and record the shot results. LLE’s network communication
system is used to coordinate actions requiring synchronization to within about one second. The timing
required to execute and diagnose a shot is provided by the hardware timing system (HTS). A “handoff”
between the two levels of timing control takes place 20 s before a shot is triggered. Like OMEGA, the
approach to system operations makes use of the concept of a “shot cycle,” consisting of a sequence of
“system states” and “shot types” (see Sec. 1.9.2). The system states partition the activities into known
situations for communications and coordination. The shot types identify the extent to which the high-
energy, pulsed beam is propagated, and the degree of system-wide coordination that is required. Details
of these concepts may be found in OMEGA System Operations Manual, Volume I: System Overview
and Volume VII, Chap. 8: Control System, S-AD-M-012.
In the “active” state, the system is not formally preparing for a specific shot, and the subsystems
are operated independently for maintenance or setup. Formal preparations for a shot are initiated by the
Shot Director (SD) who uses the Shot Executive (SE) to specify a shot type and other key parameters
Summary of Contents for Volume VII-System Description
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