1. SKADSMTAvA110405 A. van Ardenne SKADS Coördinator ASTRON, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo The Netherlands (info@skads-eu.org) www.skads-eu.org 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

2. SKADSMTAvA110405 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. SKADSMTAvA110405 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 km 2 collecting area; 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. SKADSMTAvA110405 Possible SKA sitings (ranking on scientific merit in 2006) 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 core maximum baselines at least 3000 km from array core Western Australia South Africa Argentina China KARST

5. SKADSMTAvA110405 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. SKADSMTAvA110405 The SKA Design Reference Concept Aperture phased arrays Small diameter dishes Key: Small D(iameter) large N(umber of Stations) Major technical challenge for the SKA: reduce cost/m 2 by a factor of 10 compared with current telescopes Aperture array tiles Small dishes with smart feeds in focus SKA LowBand SKA High Band 0.1 GHz ~1 GHz 25 GHz SKA Frequency Range

7. SKADSMTAvA110405 Antenna Station Electronic Beamforming Signal Processing RFI mitigation and Calibration Image formation SKADS; the SKA Low Band Antenna Tile Received radio signal Central Processor Station Processing ~750T-op/sec Data transport: fiber links ~75 Gbps 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 challenges & innovations

8. SKADSMTAvA110405 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. SKADSMTAvA110405 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)