PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #1 What is EXPReS? EXPReS = Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service Three year project (March ) funded by the European Commission (DG-INFSO), Sixth Framework Programme, Contract # EXPReS Funded at 3.9 million EUR International collaboration: 19 radioastronomy institutes and research and education networks (NRENs) representing 14 countries on 6 continents Objective: to create a distributed, large-scale astronomical instrument of continental and inter-continental dimensions Means: high-speed communication networks operating in real-time and connecting some of the largest and most sensitive radio telescopes on the planet to the central correlator in the Netherlands

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #2 EXPReS Partners 14 Countries, 6 Continents Radio Astronomy Institutes Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (Coordinator), The Netherlands Arecibo Observatory, National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Cornell University, USA Australia Telescope National Facility, a Division of CSIRO, Australia Institute of Radioastronomy, National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester, United Kingdom Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), Germany Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Finland National Center of Geographical Information, National Geographic Institute (CNIG-IGN), Spain Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, National Research Foundation, South Africa Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON), NWO, The Netherlands Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Torun Centre for Astronomy, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland Transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory (TIGO), University of Concepción, Chile Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center, Ventspils University College, Latvia National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) AARNet, Australia DANTE, United Kingdom Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, Poland SURFnet, The Netherlands

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #3 Participating Telescopes and Network Paths * *Logical network paths.

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #4 EXPReS Network Diagram

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #5 Activities #Description Leader PC Project Coordinator Huib Jan van Langevelde, JIVE NA1 Management of I3 T. Charles Yun, JIVE NA2 EVN-NREN Forum John Chevers, DANTE NA3 eVLBI Science Forum John Conway, Chalmers NA4 Public Outreach Kristine Yun, JIVE SA1 Production Services Arpad Szomoru, JIVE SA2 Network Provisioning Francisco Colomer, CNIG-IGN JRA1 FABRIC Huib Jan van Langevelde, JIVE

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #6 What is VLBI? Astronomy technique: Very Long Baseline Interferometry A radio telescope looks at an object in the sky and collects data to create an “image” of the source. Multiple telescopes can view the same object simultaneously. The distance between the telescopes is the baseline. The baseline can be compared to building a single telescope with the diameter of this distance (sort of). The resolution increases with additional telescopes and longer baselines. The sensitivity of the image increases with the data collection rate at the telescope. A central processor decodes, aligns and correlates the data for every possible telescope combination. Result: images of cosmic radio sources with up to a hundred times better resolution than images from the best optical telescopes

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #7 Aperture Synthesis Imaging Image Credits: Avruch and Pogrebenko A technique that uses a number of telescopes to simulate a much larger one. A larger dish, real or simulated, improves image clarity and brightness. This requires coordination between the telescopes and a supercomputer. Consider the examples displaying aperture size, aperture distribution and image quality. The science of e-VLBI

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #8 Interferometry Makes a Virtual Telescope

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #9 What is the correlator? Dedicated, purpose-designed and purpose-built hardware Synthesis imaging simulates a very large telescope by measuring Fourier components of sky brightness on each baseline pair Decodes, aligns and correlates the data for every possible telescope combination EVN MkIV data processor at JIVE custom silicon, 1024 chips Input data is 1 Gb/s max Around 100 T-operations/sec

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #10 Interferometry

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #11 What is e-VLBI? Electronic VLBI Instead of recording data and shipping disks to the central processor, immediately transport data over networks and correlate it in real-time. Benefits: -eliminate weeks from the observation & correlation schedule -monitor problems in data collection -detect transient events and schedule near-immediate follow- on observations -automate observation

PRESENTATION DATEEXPReS- TITLE OF YOUR PRESENTATIONSlide #12 Traditional VLBI vs. e-VLBI