Year in the Life of SKA
The SKADS Virtual Telescope
A major goal of the SKADS project is to use the simulation tools
developed by the project in order to make a realistic end-to-end
simulation of observations, and ultimately to get a picture of a fully
operational SKA (see SKADS Simulated
Skies). The idea here is to virtually schedule observations on
the SKA as it grows towards the full array in the period 2011-2020.
The technology
implementation chosen is built around the
SKADS Benchmark Scenario,
which is essentially the design option 3c described in
International SKA Memo #100
by Schilizzi et al. This implementation was
also used for the
SKADS Design & Costing memo.
This scenario is just one of several possible realisations of the
SKA Reference Design
(see
SKA memo #69,
and the updated version
in
SKA memo #100).
All details of the
SKADS Virtual Telescope (SVT), including a
basic
exposure-time calculator, are available from the SKADS webpage
at http://www.skads-eu.org/p/svt.
An initial set of proposals to “use” the SVT over the
2011-2014 period were written in 2007
(see SVT 2007).
These are to be updated taking into account the evolved
telescope specifications as described in the
SKADS Benchmark and
SKA memo #100.
New proposals are solicited, and we therefore invite
you to either (a) participate in the existing proposals; or (b) lead
new proposals.
In the former case you should contact the principle author
of the
SVT 2007 proposal. In the latter case,
please contact
Steve Rawlings or Steve Torchinsky.
The main purpose of these proposals is to quantify the science return
of the SKADS benchmark scenario in the early stages of SKA development.
They also provide the opportunity for proposers to quantify important
design details for the SVT.
After the scheduling process is complete, the proposals will be published
as a soft-back book with chapters credited to proposal writers,
and edited by the SKADS DS2-T1 team at Oxford. It will also be made
available on the SKADS web site.
The “Year in the Life of SKA” publication is a formal
requirement of the
SKADS project, and it will be delivered to the
European Community Framework Programme 6
as part of the SKADS final report.
Contact
Steve Rawlings (SKADS DS2-T1 leader):
s.rawlings1 à physics.ox.ac.uk
Steve Torchinsky (SKADS Project Scientist):
projsci à skads-eu.org
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