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A. van Ardenne SKADS Coördinator A STRON, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo

SKADS; The European Design Study towards the Square Kilometer Array The next giant leap in RadioAstronomy A European project involving 29 partners from Radio Astronomy Institutes, Universities and Industry in 8 EU countries plus Russia, S.A., Austr & Can. A Cohering Program towards 2009.

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A. van Ardenne SKADS Coördinator A STRON, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo

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  1. SKADS; The European Design Study towards the Square Kilometer Array The next giant leap in RadioAstronomy A European project involving 29 partners from Radio Astronomy Institutes, Universities and Industry in 8 EU countries plus Russia, S.A., Austr & Can. A Cohering Program towards 2009 A. van Ardenne SKADS Coördinator ASTRON, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo The Netherlands (info@skads-eu.org) www.skads-eu.org

  2. Why Build the SKA;Key Science Projects • probing the dark ages before the universe lit up • the evolution of galaxies and large scale structure in the universe (equation of state of dark energy) • strong field tests of gravity using pulsars and black holes • the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism • the cradle of life; movies of planetary formation; ETI • + • exploration of the unknown • SKA science case (eds: C. Carilli, S Rawlings) published by Elsevier in New Astronomy Reviews, vol 48, pp989-1163, December 2004 (see also www.skatelescope.org)

  3. Square Kilometre Array SKA combines extremely powerful survey capability with targeted research capability to follow up individual objects with high angular and time resolution ~1 km2 collectingarea; sensitivity ~100 x currently most powerful telescope survey speed is 10000 x faster than VLA wide frequency range: 0.1 – 25 GHz (goal) wide field of view: ≥1 sq. degree at 1.4 GHz (5 x area of moon) goal: many tens of sq. deg.

  4. KARST Possible SKA sitings (ranking on scientific merit in 2006) • Western Australia • South Africa • Argentina • China 20% of total collecting area within 1 km diameter 50% of total collecting area within 5 km diameter 75% of total collecting area within 150 km from coremaximum baselines at least 3000 km from array core

  5. Square Kilometre Array goal of multi-beam instrument at lower frequencies construction cost 1000 M€; operating cost 100 M€ per year “born global”; now >50 institutes in 17 countries actively involved

  6. The SKA Design Reference Concept • Aperture phased arrays • Small diameter dishes • Key: Small D(iameter) large N(umber of Stations) Aperture array tiles Small dishes with smart feeds in focus 0.1 GHz ~1 GHz 25 GHz SKA LowBand SKA Frequency Range SKA High Band Major technical challenge for the SKA: reduce cost/m2 by a factor of 10 compared with current telescopes

  7. SKADS challenges & innovations • Low-cost, wideband, sensitive dense arrays for aperture and focal planes • Fast, long-distance, data transport • High performance DSP & computing hardware • New data processing and visualization techniques • Industry liaison • Pre-competitive alliances + procurement + project delivery SKADS; the SKA Low Band Received radio signal Antenna Tile Antenna Station Central Processor Station Processing ~750T-op/sec Electronic Beamforming Signal Processing RFI mitigation and Calibration Image formation Data transport: fiber links ~75 Gbps

  8. SKADS Main Objectives • A 40M€ program (incl. 10M€ EC) to • Prove “R&D” Readiness • Make a convincing case regarding the use of array technologies for Radio Astronomy • Target the costing issue head-on FP6 DS Structure: Blue = Technical Preparatory work Yellow= Feasibility Studies

  9. EMBRACE; a SKADS Demonstrator • 400 tiles 1sqm distributed over two locations Westerbork and Nancay • Frequency range: 450- 1420 MHz • 4 independent FOV´s beams (goal), 4 digital beams/FOV • Station Processing ~5-10 Tops/sec • Adaptive beamforming (deterministic & adaptive)

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