Submitted by Vanessa Bismuth on Mon, 11/04/2022 - 10:02
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is the world’s largest radio telescope, which recently received the go-ahead to start its £2bn construction phase in Australia, southern Africa and the UK. To be complete by 2028, the SKA is anticipated to operate for the next 50 years.
“It is extremely exciting for us to start construction for the SKA and to have such an important role. Putting into practice the software design we led the development of during the 5-year design phase is particularly important for us.Paul Alexander
As one of the largest scientific endeavours in history, the SKA brings together more than 500 engineers, over 1,000 scientists and dozens of policy-makers in more than 20 countries. The SKA will have sensitivity 100 times greater than the most sensitive radio telescopes of the present generation, and an ability to survey the sky up to 1 million times faster.
Since 2005, the Cavendish Astrophysics group has been leading on the development of the science data analysis processor - “the brains of the telescope” and the radio array antenna technology for the low frequency instrument.
Now a new £5M grant from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) will allow Cambridge researchers to focus on the advanced development of the science data processor and analysis software, which are required to process the extreme rates of raw data into science outputs.
“It is extremely exciting for us to start construction for the SKA and to have such an important role. Putting into practice the software design we led the development of during the 5-year design phase is particularly important for us,” said Prof. Paul Alexander, from Cavendish Astrophysics, long-term PI of the SKA grants in Cambridge and co-investigator of this new grant.
The SKA observatory will be built in stages, with two telescopes, SKA-Low and SKA-Mid distributed over the three host countries. When completed, the SKA will be the most complex network of radio telescopes ever built, with 131,000 radio antennae distributed in 512 stations making SKA-low and nearly 200 15-m dish antennae for SKA-Mid.
“As in pre-construction, Cambridge provides a vital part of the software and computing development effort for the SKA Observatory. We form half of the Science Data Handling and Processing programme team responsible for furthering the software architecture and technical approach,” said Jeremy Coles, co-investigator and project manager of the grant. “We also directly lead development teams working on telescope simulations, the core software stack and undertake key work for platforms as well as provide the Release Train Engineer expertise for supporting Services. The transition to construction, and our role in it, is a welcome outcome reflecting the tremendous effort and great results our team has contributed.”
“This STFC grant is a major milestone in our involvement in the pioneering project. It will enable us here in Cambridge to undertake the efforts towards the advanced development of the science data processor,” said Eloy de Lera Acedo, also from the Cavendish and PI of this new STFC Grant. “The telescope has recently entered its first construction phase and we are all very excited about the prospect of one day doing science with the SKA telescope to address fundamental unanswered questions about our Universe.”
Professor Mark Thomson, Executive Chair of STFC and member of the SKAO Council, said: “The UK plays a leading role in SKAO and the development of its telescopes, and we look forward to that continuing.
“For any large-scale scientific endeavour, the linchpin of its success lies in the infrastructure. Without the power to carry, process and organise the vast amounts of data these telescopes will gather, we would not be able to make the important discoveries.
“With the skills and expertise of our researchers and our colleagues in industry, the UK will deliver the computing brain and nervous system of the telescopes to enable the observations and unlock the science. “
The SKAO headquarters is based in the UK on the grounds of the Jodrell Bank UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was co-funded by the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), through the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The UK government, through STFC, has committed at least £100million to the construction of the SKA and the SKA headquarters.
Image:
Composite image of the SKA telescopes, blending real hardware already on site with artist impressions. From left: artist's impression of the future SKA dishes blend into the existing precursor MeerKAT telescope dishes in South Africa. From right: artist's impression of the future SKA-Low stations. Credit: SKAO