SKA preconstruction funding supplement
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Physics
Abstract
This grant provides additional funding as part of the SKA preconstruction development programme at Oxford. Two new areas are funded:
1) SKA1-Mid Band 3/4/5 feed package development. This is one of the three feed packages being developed for SKA1-Mid, the SKA dish array. Bands 3, 4 and 5 cover the frequencies from 1.65 GHz to 13.8 GHz. Under this funding we will develop the prototype feed package which includes the integration of the cryogenic cooling, feed horns, low noise amplifiers, RF gain chain and all relevant support equipment in to a complete package that will be tested on the prototype SKA dish antenna.
2) ProtoNIP - this is a computing system that will be used to validate the development work being done on searching for new pulsars with the SKA. The computing cluster will be attached to the SKA precursor instrument MeerKAT in South Africa, and will be used as a test-bed for the algorithms used to detect pulsars from the data stream produced by the telescope.
In addition, the grant will support all the researchers working at Oxford on SKA design and development for a period of 4 months, enabling continuation of the design consortia work towards the system critical design reviews.
1) SKA1-Mid Band 3/4/5 feed package development. This is one of the three feed packages being developed for SKA1-Mid, the SKA dish array. Bands 3, 4 and 5 cover the frequencies from 1.65 GHz to 13.8 GHz. Under this funding we will develop the prototype feed package which includes the integration of the cryogenic cooling, feed horns, low noise amplifiers, RF gain chain and all relevant support equipment in to a complete package that will be tested on the prototype SKA dish antenna.
2) ProtoNIP - this is a computing system that will be used to validate the development work being done on searching for new pulsars with the SKA. The computing cluster will be attached to the SKA precursor instrument MeerKAT in South Africa, and will be used as a test-bed for the algorithms used to detect pulsars from the data stream produced by the telescope.
In addition, the grant will support all the researchers working at Oxford on SKA design and development for a period of 4 months, enabling continuation of the design consortia work towards the system critical design reviews.
Planned Impact
Both areas of research covered by this grant will use equipment supplied by high-tech industry in the UK. Following on from the development work supported in this grant, the SKA organisation will procure the production versions of the receivers and computing systems. Having done the development in the UK makes it significantly more likely that these production contracts will be based in the UK.
Publications
Moldón J
(2015)
The LOFAR long baseline snapshot calibrator survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Sotomayor-Beltran C
(2015)
Calibrating high-precision Faraday rotation measurements for LOFAR and the next generation of low-frequency radio telescopes (Corrigendum)
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Heald G
(2015)
The LOFAR Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS) I. Survey description and first results
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Morosan D
(2015)
LOFAR tied-array imaging and spectroscopy of solar S bursts
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Noutsos A
(2015)
Pulsar polarisation below 200 MHz: Average profiles and propagation effects
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pilia M
(2016)
Wide-band, low-frequency pulse profiles of 100 radio pulsars with LOFAR
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Garsden H
(2015)
LOFAR sparse image reconstruction
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kondratiev V
(2016)
A LOFAR census of millisecond pulsars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Nelles A
(2015)
Measuring a Cherenkov ring in the radio emission from air showers at 110-190MHz with LOFAR
in Astroparticle Physics
Farnes J
(2018)
Science Pipelines for the Square Kilometre Array
in Galaxies
Pellegrini A
(2021)
MID-Radio Telescope, Single Pixel Feed Packages for the Square Kilometer Array: An Overview
in IEEE Journal of Microwaves
Price D
(2017)
HIPSR: A Digital Signal Processor for the Parkes 21-cm Multibeam Receiver
in Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation
Torchinsky S
(2015)
EMBRACE@Nançay: an ultra wide field of view prototype for the SKA
in Journal of Instrumentation
Nelles A
(2015)
Calibrating the absolute amplitude scale for air showers measured at LOFAR
in Journal of Instrumentation
Mort B
(2017)
Analysing the impact of far-out sidelobes on the imaging performance of the SKA-LOW telescope
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Karastergiou A
(2015)
Limits on fast radio bursts at 145 MHz with artemis, a real-time software backend
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sobey C
(2015)
LOFAR discovery of a quiet emission mode in PSR B0823+26
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Foster G
(2015)
Intrinsic instrumental polarization and high-precision pulsar timing
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chapman E
(2016)
The effect of foreground mitigation strategy on EoR window recovery
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Brook P
(2015)
Emission-rotation correlation in pulsars: new discoveries with optimal techniques
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Novotný J
(2023)
Accelerating Dedispersion Using Many-core Architectures
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
| Description | This award has been used to advance the design of the Square Kilometre Array towards construction readiness. Advanced designs now exist in the areas to which we have been contributing - software systems, detection of pulsars, receiver design, signal processing hardware and software. |
| Exploitation Route | This work will be used to complete the construction of the SKA and hence enable all the subsequent science. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Description | SKA Aperture Array Delivery Consortium |
| Organisation | ASTRON Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (Astron) leads this consortium of several research institutes which is designing systems for the Square Kilometre Array. Oxford is contributing to the design of the digital signal processing system and the overall system design. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Other partners are contributing design to all other aspects of the SKA low-frequency aperture array system. |
| Impact | Design documents internal to the SKA project. |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | SKA Central Signal Processing Consortium |
| Organisation | NRC Canada |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | NRC leads the SKA central signal processing consortium. Oxford contributes design of signal processing systems for detection and analysis of pulsar signals. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Other consortium members provide designs of other aspects of the SKA signal processing system including beamformers and correlators. |
| Impact | SKA internal project documents |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | SKA Dish Consortium |
| Organisation | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | CSIRO leads the SKA Dish consortium which is designing the dish antennas and receivers for the SKA. Oxford is leading the design of one of the receiver packages. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Other consortium members are designing the dish antennas and other receiver packages. |
| Impact | SKA internal project documents |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | SKA Science Data Processing Consortium |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Department of Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Cambridge leads the SKA consortium planning the science data processing system. Oxford contributes expertise in algorithms and high performance computing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Other consortium members contribute many areas of expertise in scientific computing. |
| Impact | SKA internal project documents. |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Oxford Astrophysics Stargazing event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Oxford Astrophysics holds an annual 'Stargazing' public event with ~500 attendees. Staff from this research project take part in talks and demonstrations explaining the SKA project and astrophysics in general to the public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | SKA stand at Bluedot Festival, Jodrell Bank |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Members of our research group staffed an SKA stall at the Bluedot Festival (music/science) at Jodrell Bank in 2016 and 2017. They explained the SKA project and astronomy in general to members of the public (several hundred encounters from the ~5000 people attending the festival). Our staff reported strong interest and appreciation from the members of the public they spoke to. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |