This allows for more accurate measurements to be made. In electronics certain types of noise can be found by studying pedestal values. To do so, I read introductory books on the languages and studied example programs written by other members of the calorimeter upgrade group so I could better acquaint myself with various styles of programming, with some programming tricks, and with the indispensable jargon. This helped tremendously in completing my task within the allotted time. From these plots, channels containing correlated noise could be found.
Correlated noise is common mode noise, noise of the same type or from the same source.
After pinpointing the channels with correlated noise, further study was needed to determine the nature of the noise and to rectify the problem if possible. To identify the nature of the noise, I used an oscilloscope to measure the period of the rogue oscillations and their respective frequencies. In addition to my noise studies, which entailed both software and hardware work, I also participated in some maintenance work being performed on the calorimeter. The installation work had already been completed prior to my arrival so maintenance was necessary. Each CAF card receives the current pulses from one of the calorimeter PMTs.