ATUC Meeting Project Update CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Antony Schinckel, ASKAP Director 30 October 2012 ATUC Meeting | Antony Schinckel | Page 1

ATUC MeetingProject Update

CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science

Antony Schinckel, ASKAP Director30 October 2012

ATUC Meeting | Antony Schinckel | Page 1

SKA Office visits Australia, October 2012Members of the international SKA Office recently visited Australia on a familiarisation tour of ASKAP, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Murchison region.

ASKAP and the MRO official opening 5 October, October 2012Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, officially opened CSIRO's newest radio telescope, the Australian SKA Pathfinder, on 5 October 2012.

Phase closure achieved on multiple ASKAP PAFs, August 2012Phase closure has been achieved for the first time during system verification tests on three ASKAP antennas installed with CSIRO's innovative new phased array feed (PAF) receiver technology.

Latest ASKAP News http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/askap/news.html


http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/askap/news.html

Took place on 5 October 2012 at the MRO for 195 guests (+18 media representatives + 27 support staff and 47 contractors). A total of 289 people onsite. – Distinguished guests included: Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research Senator

the Hon. Chris Evans; Minister for Science and Innovation Hon. John Day MLA; Minister for Human Services, Senator the Hon. Kim Carr; Senator for Western Australia, Senator Louise Pratt; City of Greater Gealdton, Mayor Ian Carpenter, members of the SKA and CSIRO Boards, Ambassadors of SKA Member countries and Wajarri Yamatji community leaders.

Guests were transported by plane or bus to the MRO site, served morning tea on arrival, joined an official opening ceremony and served lunch before departing.

Local events also took place at CSIRO’s Marsfield, Parkes, Narrabri and Tidbinbilla sites for 200 CASS staff.

ASKAP & MRO Official Opening Ceremony


Setting up before the ceremony. Setting up before the ceremony. There was a full line-up at the MRO airstrip.

The dishes provide a stunning background for the press conference.

CASS Chief Phil Diamond talks with SBS

MRO Aboriginal Liaison Officer Robin Boddington talks with Channel 10


An antenna tour for the media. Guests begin to arrive before the ceremony.

The crowd during the ceremony. Some of the Wajarri Yamatji dancers.

Making sure it all runs according to plan.

Minister Evans pushes the button to mark the official opening of ASKAP and the MRO.


Celebrations were also held at Marsfield, Parkes, Narrabri and Tidbinbilla:


Included in the Official Opening Ceremony of the ASKAP and MRO was a Naming Ceremony for 30 ASKAP antennas. (The first six antennas were named in an event held in June 2011.)

All 36 antennas now have Wajarri-Yamatji names. The names are a collection of Wajarri family names as well as words from the Wajarri language for native flora and fauna and landmarkings around the MRO, objects in the sky and Wajarri dancing.

ASKAP Antenna Naming Ceremony

Image credit: Dragonfly Media



• A live stream of the Opening Ceremony received 663 total views. The webcast is now available at: http://tinyvio.com/CSIRO_ASKAP_Opening_Ceremony

• Media coverage of the ASKAP and MRO opening ceremony has been extensive with more than 200 stories/items appearing (to Friday 12 October 2012).

• A report by TweetReach indicates that items with #ASKAP reached more than 475,000 Twitter accounts (accessed 12 October 2012).

Public Response


http://tinyvio.com/CSIRO_ASKAP_Opening_Ceremony

http://tinyvio.com/CSIRO_ASKAP_Opening_Ceremony

• Within the current ASKAP budget scope is the installation of six first generation state-of-the-art phased-array feed (PAF) receiver (MkI) systems and twelve second generation (MkII) systems to be installed on 18 ASKAP antennas. The six MkI PAF systems will form the ASKAP BETA array. The twelve MkII PAF systems are being developed under the ASKAP Design Enhancement Program (ADE). CSIRO is currently seeking additional capital funds to outfit the remaining 18 ASKAP antennas with the same MkII PAF systems.

• The transition from ASKAP construction phase to ASKAP operations phase, as part of the Australia Telescope National Facility, is underway and is following the timeline for transition from BETA engineering commissioning to BETA science commissioning. This transition is expected to be complete by end 2013.

• The build-out of the additional PAFs will continue once ASKAP BETA is operational. Antenna+PAF systems will be continually absorbed by ASKAP operations.

ASKAP Project Status Summary


ASKAP Milestones TimelineActivity Completion date

Construction of all 36 ASKAP antennas complete June 2012Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) support infrastructure complete-Includes an 800 sq metre , along with water, cooling, power systems and waste management-Also includes roads, airstrip, power and optical-fibre distribution, and network connectivity to the based Pawsey Supercomputer Centre for science processing

July 2012

Start of system verification-Includes demonstration of signal processing (early ASKAP commissioning) September 2012

ASKAP BETA (the Boolardy Engineering Test Array) complete-Comprises the full MRO infrastructure, with a six antenna ASKAP system utilising phased array feed (PAF) receivers-This scaled down telescope will allow demonstration and validation of the telescope design within the radio observatory-Along with exciting technology, ASKAP BETA will begin producing some science outcomes

(November 2012)

MRO Support Facility complete -820 sq metre facility based in Geraldton for ASKAP support staff

February 2013

36-dish ASKAP with 12 PAFS-Complete 36 antennas-A minimum of 12 antennas equipped with Phased Array Feed (PAF) receivers, 6 of which are new generation Mark II PAFs-Remaining antennas fitted with single pixel feed technology-Meaningful astronomical science is undertaken at this stage.

Dec 2013

ASKAP technical upgrade -ASKAP fitted with an additional 6 Mark II PAFs bringing the total number of antennas with PAFs to 18. (Numbers to increase as soon as possible to 36 depending on funding)-ASKAP becomes a genuinely powerful telescope in its own right, facilitating world-class astronomical research.

Mid 2014


• The fourth BETA MkI PAF arrived at the MRO in September 2012 and is currently being installed on one of the ASKAP antennas.

• Progress continued in Marsfield on the next two PAFs (BETA PAFs #2 and #3).

• There are just ten weeks to go until the Integration Readiness Review for the ASKAP Design Enhancement Project (ADE). This will be an internal review. The latest revisions to the ADE LNA have reduced the minimum noise temperature from 35K to 27K.

• Characterisation of the MkI PAF installed on the 12-m Parkes Testbed Facility continues.

PAF Development

Figure 1 shows for the first time an estimate of the point source sensitivity across the full field-of-view (FoV) of the PAF. The image combines the response from 36 single-polarization formed beams on a 6x6 square grid with 1 degree spacing. Each beam is approximately 1 degree half power beam width (FWHM), using 1 MHz bandwidth at 1312 MHz.


• Verification tests of the three-PAF BETA 1 system commenced in June 2012. In August 2012, the three-PAF BETA 1 system produced ‘first fringes’ as well as demonstrated phase closure. A flawless live demonstration of the three-PAF BETA-1 system took place during the ASKAP Opening Ceremony.

• An internal review of BETA delivery took place on 19 October 2012 that included presentations on the current and planned capabilities of the BETA system. A summary of this review will be forthcoming.

Systems Engineering, Integration and Commissioning


• The current three-PAF BETA 1 system utilises a software correlator that uses 'raw data capture' from memory on beamformer cards.

• The associated hardware is capable of handling data from 16 bands, each 1 MHz, spanning 300 MHz bandwidth and a 1:10 duty cycle (i.e. it takes 10 seconds to download 1 sec of data). The hardware limits the number of beams to maximum of 4. With the current computer setup reliable correlation for 3 beams is possible (with a soon-to-be installed dedicated machine this will increase to 4 beams).

• Will implement an expansion of the software correlator capability to 15 baselines and up to 9 beams for the same 16 MHz bandwidth and 1:10 duty cycle prior to the hardware correlator coming online. A period of simultaneous use will follow.

ASKAP Software Correlator


• Based on feedback from the ASKAP Survey Science Teams, new ASKAP Project Scientist Lisa Harvey-Smith reviewed membership, scope and leadership of the ASKAP Working Groups.

• A draft of the ASKAP Publications Policy has been developed and was reviewed by ASKAP Survey Science Teams at their meeting held on 11 September 2012. The ASKAP publication policy applies to the publication of all measurements or images derived from ASKAP, including sub-arrays (e.g. BETA or any other stage of ASKAP development) and the full ASKAP system. It also applies to technical descriptions relating to any element, sub-system or system of ASKAP. This policy also applies in situations where third-party hardware, software or firmware is installed on ASKAP.

• A PAF Applications Workshop was held on 22 October 2012 with staff from CASS and the ICT Centre.

ASKAP Science


• Practical completion of the MRO site infrastructure work occurred on 29 June 2012 and the MRO control building and all infrastructure have been handed over to CSIRO.

• The MRO-Perth Fibre Link is up and running and currently being used at the 2 Gb/sec level. On 10 August 2012 the MRO control building was connected to the MRO-Geraldton fibre network and the planned 40 Gb/s connectivity is expected in December 2012.

Murchison Radio Observatory (MRO) Site and Supporting Infrastructure

Of the required MRO Infrastructure only the power station remains to be installed. As planned, the MRO is now operating from a rental diesel generator pending completion of proposed Horizon Power Stage 1 power system (2014).


MRO Support Facility (Geraldton)

The build of the MRO Support Facility (MSF) located at the Geraldton Universities Centre is on track and scheduled for occupancy in early 2013.


Director’s response to ATUC Report – July 2012

ATUC recommendation Director’s Response

The ATUC encourages the ASKAP team to focus on a science application that can demonstrate the power of the PAF design.

There should be a track to early publication of results as soon as possible.

We are working with the science survey teams through ASKAP WG4b to solicit short test observations that will both verify the performance of the PAFs as well as showcase the technical niche that PAFs occupy.

We are also working through test fields observed with the ATCA to produce high dynamic-range images of large complex fields near Fornax and Circinus. These will provide an early demonstration platform for ASKAP's PAFs.

We are committed to speedy publication of the results.

Thank youAstronomy & Space ScienceAntony SchinckelASKAP Directort +61 2 9372 4100E [email protected] www.csiro.au/projects/ASKAP

Astronomy and Space Science

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


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ATUC Meeting Project Update CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Antony Schinckel, ASKAP Director 30 October 2012 ATUC Meeting | Antony Schinckel | Page 1