1. SKA update
Sarah Pearce| Deputy Director, CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science
November 2016
CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

2. 3 sites - 2 telescopes; HQ 1 Observatory Project scope Phase 1
Construction: 2018 – 2023
Construction cost: ~€800M (?)
Operations cost: ~€130M/yr, TBD

3. Australian pre-construction roles
Consortium
Australian partners
Assembly Integration and Verification
CSIRO
Central Signal Processor
CSIRO, Swinburne University of Technology, CISCO Australia
Dish
CSIRO (consortium lead), RPC technologies
Infrastructure Australia
Aurecon, CSIRO (consortium lead), Horizon Power, Radio Quiet Zone (RQZ) Solutions
Rider Levett Bucknall
Low Frequency Aperture Array
ICRAR, MWA, CSIRO
Science Data Processor
ICRAR, CSIRO, iVEC
Signal and Data Transport
AARNet, CSIRO, UWA
Telescope Manager

4. CASS in SKA1-Low pre-construction
Leading Australian Infrastructure consortium
Engineering work by Aurecon
Leading correlator and beamformer for SKA1-Low
With Astron and AUT
Australian lead for Assembly, Integration and Verification
Imaging and calibration in Science Data Processor
Contribute to Signal and Data Transport, Telescope Manager
Recently invited to join Low Frequency Aperture Array on behalf of MWA
Many other Australian organisations also working on SKA1-Low, including ICRAR (Curtin and UWA), AARNet, Swinburne, industry partners
The ATNF in 2017 and beyond

5. AAVS and EDA WWW.SKA.GOV.AU ICRAR leading deployment of AAVS
Antenna bases for the Array Verification System (AAVS1) are being put into position in anticipation of antennas being deployed late 2016
Initial implementation of the Engineering Development Array (EDA) is complete
EDA is a dedicated test and verification platform for further development of MWA and commissioning of AAVS1
It is currently being used to verify the performance of the system developed to facilitate ingest of signals from ‘external instruments’ into the MWA signal chain.

6. Status of Design activities
All 9 consortia have completed Preliminary Design Reviews
Massive effort – 100s documents
Some issues, as expected, but closing off now
Detailed design moving to Stage 2;
System Review Q1 2016
System PDR end 2016
Critical Design Reviews 2017 – 2018
DIIS funding ran until end Extension funding from NISA – call for proposals expected before Christmas

7. Inter-governmental Organisation
SKA Member governments are negotiating the establishment of an intergovernmental organisation (IGO), similar to ESO/CERN/ITER/ESA.
Will provide:
Long-term government commitment and funding stability
Availability of Privileges and Immunities from members
‘Freedom to operate’, specifically through procurement process
NISA announcement of $293.7m for SKA: needs Cabinet approval for release
Includes funding for:
SKA construction
SKA operations up to 2026
ILUA
Site Entity
Pre-construction extension

8. IGO: formal negotiations
Rome: October; 26–28 January; April; Sept; Minister Vicente (Italy) – Chair.
All 10 countries present
Canada observer
Germany recently joined negotiations as observer
Issues remaining include:
Weighted voting
IP policy
Procurement model
Aiming for approved text in Feb
Ministerial signing mid-2017

9. Construction
SKA construction will be mix of cash and in-kind procurement
‘Fair work return’ will ensure return to Australia
CSIRO main areas of interest:
Integration and commissioning
Digital signal processing for SKA1_Low
Managing infrastructure construction
Computing - calibration and imaging

10. Engineering development
SKAO will have an Observatory Development Programme
Co-funded engineering activities from member countries
Four areas identified
Phased Array Feeds
SKA1_Low development
Mid-frequency Aperture Array
Wide-band single pixel feeds
Aim to lead PAF activity
Setting up PAF consortium in pre-construction
Likely partners Italy, UK, Netherlands, China, Germany, Sweden

11. Site Entity Responsible for Australian deliverables:
Radio quiet
Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) – new ILUA
“Landlord” of the site – holds the lease, agrees other users
Manage shared facilities – eg roads, fibre etc.
ILUA negotiations have started
Working with WA Gov and DIIS on lease and agreements

12. SKA Operator Manages ‘on site’ activities for SKA
Includes routine maintenance, hardware engineering, aspects of software engineering, and performing observations.
CSIRO and SKA SA preferred contractors for this role
Staff based in Geraldton – probably fly-in-fly-out

13. SKA Observatory Office in Australia
Staff based in Australia but employed by the international SKA Observatory
Technical performance monitoring, calibration, aspects of science data production, QA, project support and aspects of software engineering.
Intended to be based in Perth
Manage interface with SKA Operator, Science Processing Facility (Pawsey Centre)

14. Science processing facility
High performance computing centre - ingest data and produce and store data products.
Under contract to SKA Observatory
Fundamental part of the telescope for real-time processing
Planned to be Pawsey Centre in Australia

15. SKA Regional Centres
SKA Observatory will deliver data to archives in Perth and/or Cape Town.
Members will establish SKA Regional Centres to help support SKA science.
Loosely based on the CERN model of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid
Provide processing, storage, user support and others
Peter Quinn leading Australian committee to plan Regional Centre
Potential collaboration with NZ and China
Critical part of CSIRO’s role in SKA
Consult with community on your needs for the Australian SRC

16. Australian SKA Science Advisory Committee
Chaired by Carole Jackson (ICRAR/Curtin)
Stuart Wyithe
Lister Staveley-Smith
Lisa Harvey-Smith
Naomi McClure-Griffiths
Andrew Hopkins
Simon Johnston
Elaine Sadler
SKA Fellowships
Four Fellows approved: Natasha Hurley-Walker, Martin Meyer, Warren Bax, Attila Popping
Work for ~3 months at SKA HQ in UK
Briefing community afterwards – probably at OzSKA

17. CSIRO SKA Staffing
Warren Bax – 4 month secondment to SKA HQ – finance for the IGO
Ant Schinckel – 75% secondment to SKA HQ on Operations Planning for SKA1_Low
Mainly still based in Australia
Ramp up as ASKAP-30 construction comes to an end
Kate Chow maternity leave – Howard D’Costa
SKA Information Officer recruitment
Phil Edwards – SKA Project Scientist
Working with and on behalf of the Australian astronomy community
Acting as point of contact for the Australian science community on SKA science matters
Keep the science community updated with progress on SKA
Helping to organise meetings, eg OzSKA, conference pre-briefings, and the SKA Fellows Programme
Build a cohesive Australian SKA science community