1. Director’s Update AT Users’ Committee -- November 2016
Douglas Bock -- Director

2. ATUC Members – Nov 2016 Virginia Kilborn (Chair, Swinburne University)
Jo Dawson (Secretary, Macquarie University / CASS)
Stuart Ryder (AAO)
James Miller-Jones (Curtin University)
Stas Shabala (University of Tasmania)
Willem van Straten (AUT)
Vanessa Moss (Sydney University)
Martin Bell (CASS)
Sarah Hegarty (Student, Swinburne University)
[vacant]
Will be calling for nominations for ATUC and TAC in 2017

3. Highlights ASKAP Early Science PAF installation PAF on Parkes
MRO Power station for ASKAP and MWA
Breakthrough Listen start
ATCA Legacy Projects
FAST feed (and opening!)
SKA IGO negotiations converging
SKA construction focusing on a 2018 start
DSS36 complete at Tidbinbilla
Roadshow – Au Universities Oct/Nov (Swinburne, Sydney, UNSW, UWA, Curtin, AAO, ANU, UTas)
The FAST 19-beam feed Photo credit: Wheeler Studios
Most of these to be covered in later presentations

4. The ATNF in 10 years – the era of SKA Phase 1
Manager of the SKA Site & Radio Quiet Zone
Operator for SKA in Australia
Key Partner in SKA Regional Data Centre
Technologies Research & Development
Developing technologies for SKA and others
Develop PAF technology as part of the SKAO Development Programme
Towards SKA – Phase 2
An upgraded ASKAP ?

5. Status: stable ASKAP-12 array; 36 beams, 48 MHz bandwidth
Demonstrate unique capabilities
Data to community
Feedback to CASS for tuning and improving
science
12 ant. 25 % of time for about a year nights.
Status: stable ASKAP-12 array; 36 beams, 48 MHz bandwidth

6. CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science Page 5

7. PAF Production/Installation Status (as of 04/11/2016)
COMPLETED / PASS
RETEST REQUIRED
PARTIAL COMPLETION
AK13
MPI
AK14
AK10
AK24
AK16
AK30
AK28
AK04
AK05
AK02
AK12
AK27
AK17
AK22
AK18
AK25
AK01
shipped
AK19
AK20
AK34
AK26
AK08
shipped
AK06
AK03
shipped
shipped

8. ASKAP Timeline
7 Oct 2016: start of ASKAP-12 Early Science with BW = 48 MHz
WALLABY has gathered ~10 nights of data on one ES field
24 PAFs are currently installed at the MRO, 4 PAFs shipping to MRO 03/11
from 21 Oct 2016: ASKAP commissioning team to upgrade bandwidth to the full 300 MHz and test performance
Nov/Dec 2016: ASKAP-12 Early Science, increase b/w (300 MHz)
Dec 2016: 30 PAFs at the MRO, ready for single dish testing
Feb 2017: upgrade Pawsey computing system (storage focus)
Feb − Jul 2017: observing continues with core ASKAP-12
work on adding six PAFs to ASKAP-12 for science
Sep 2017: final 6 PAFs at MRO, ready for testing (31 – 36)
Commence rollout of AR3, AR4 etc to enable 24, 30, 36
Q3 2017: commissioning with ASKAP-30 **
Demonstrate unique capability
Data to community
Feedback to CASS for tuning and improving
science
12 ant. 25 % of time for about a year nights
** message – essential to understand uncertainty of s/w rollout and testing. AR releases of ASKAPsoft will continue to discover issues with the system and Pawsey, even though we do full end to end tests in advance with simulated data. Increasing ASKAPSoft from 12 to 30 antennas should commence in June 2017, with a restricted number of modes – some transient, zoom etc won’t be till later (2018).

9. Initial operations include use of diesel generators and the Horizon Power 250kW solar array.
Horizon Power will lead the integration of Stage 2 being the CSIRO SESKA funded 1.6MW solar Array and 2.5MWh energy storage system

10. 2017 ASKAP Commissioning and Early Science
ATCA Legacy Projects and Breakthrough Listen
Technologies
Deliver UWB-LOW feed and ASKAP PAFs
Seek funding for Parkes PAF and ASKAP Feedleg upgrade, ASKAP Tied Array mode
Publish the long term strategy for the program
Pipeline of projects for continuity of expertise
Broader impacts of our program
ATNF Operations
Negotiations on observing time (EoI process)
Potential reductions in access to Parkes and/or ATCA, LBA.
SKA
Intergovernmental Org (IGO), funding, CDRs
Designing our regional Centre (CSIRO SKA project scientist)

11. Key questions for ATUC
Relative risks and priorities of maintaining merit-based access to
ATCA
Parkes
LBA
What should the SKA Regional Centre provide to Australian astronomers (ongoing consultation)?
We are just beginning the discussion on Regional Centres. CASS will lead Australian community input to the process

13. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site

14. Backup slides follow

15. CSIRO funding of radio astronomy
Expected
to be steady