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e-VLBI – Creating a Global Radio-Telescope Array via High-Speed Networks. Alan R. Whitney MIT Haystack Observatory. Optical Waves: Who Needs Them and Why? Internet2 Fall Member Meeting Chicago, IL 5 Dec 2006. Traditional VLBI.
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e-VLBI – Creating a Global Radio-Telescope Array via High-Speed Networks Alan R. Whitney MIT Haystack Observatory Optical Waves: Who Needs Them and Why? Internet2 Fall Member Meeting Chicago, IL 5 Dec 2006
Traditional VLBI The Very-Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Technique(with traditional data recording) The Global VLBI Array(up to ~20 stations can be used simultaneously)
VLBI Science • ASTRONOMY • Highest resolution technique available to astronomers – tens of microarcseconds • Allows detailed studies of the most distant objects Plate-tectonic motions from VLBI measurements • GEODESY • Highest precision (few mm) technique available for global tectonic measurements • Highest spatial and time resolution of Earth’s motion in space for the study of Earth’s interior • Earth-rotation measurements important for military/civilian navigation • Fundamental calibration for GPS constellation within Celestial Ref Frame VLBI astronomy example
e-VLBI Data Rates and Volume • Typical astronomy experiment at 1 Gbps/station • ~10 TB/station/day • Global 20-station experiment ~200 TB/day • Single 10-day experiment can produce up to 2 PB • Higher data rates yield higher signal-to-noise ratio in final results • Data rates of 8 to 64 Gbps are already on the horizon and can only be sustained by e-VLBI too much data to economically record and ship
e-VLBI Characteristics • Experiments scheduled well in advance; duration typically several hours to several days • Data rate is constant over long periods of time; typically 128Mbps to several Gbps, extending to many Gbps in future • Data are uncompressible white Gaussian noise • For real-time processing, latency must be typically <~1 sec • Some data loss (up to a few percent) can usually be tolerated • Intermediate network storage may be useful in some situations These characteristics are well suited to using optical waves
International e-VLBI Demonstrations in collaboration with DRAGON project • iGRID-05 Networking Conf. San Diego, CA Sep 05 • SC-05 Supercomputer Conf. Seattle, WA Nov 05 Internet2 Driving Exemplary Applications (IDEA) Award to “Very High Speed VLBI (e-VLBI)”. Alan Whitney (MIT/Haystack), Arpad Szomoru (JIVE), Y. Koyama (NICT), and Hisao Uose (NTT) Apr 26, 2006 – Arlington, VA
Challenges of e-VLBI over optical waves • Easy and reliable scheduling • Easy setup and teardown of optical circuits • Quick identification and resolution of problems; all telescopes must be connected all the time for real-time processing • Physical connection of remote telescopes to high-speed networks with optical-wave capability; proceeding well in Europe, Asia and Europe – U.S. lags Bottom line: e-VLBI and optical waves are clearly a good match and are already being successfully exploited on a limited basis for better science.