Speaker
Description
The European XFEL, a world-leading X-ray Free Electron Laser situated in the Hamburg-area, Germany, offers a unique 4.5 MHz burst pulse structure that enables users from across the globe to conduct scientific measurements during typically one-week-long beam times. These measurements are supported by facility staff throughout, and each of the 7 instruments can be reconfigured significantly for each beam time.
In this contribution, we provide an overview of the services and infrastructure provided by the European XFEL Data Department to facilitate and support the scientific operation of the facility. These services include the regular ingestion, reduction, processing, and archival of data volumes exceeding 1 PB per week, at peak rates of 20, and soon 40 GB per second, online processing and metadata extraction, experiment automation and steering, and the provision of bespoke X-ray imaging detectors capable of resolving the facility’s MHz burst rate. The EuXFEL Data Operation Center serves as a central support entity, providing support for these services 24/7 during the facility’s operation.
We also discuss future prospects for higher data rates, advanced automation and data reduction techniques tailored to specific experimental techniques, and the integration of agentic AI to enhance the operation and support of the facility.
