Building the Square Kilometer Array – a truly global project Mary Fleming Director Business Development and International AARNet - Australia Building the Square Kilometer Array – a truly global project

International Research Networks

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………and so what is the SKA? The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, led by the SKA Organisation from Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK. The SKA will conduct transformational science to improve our understanding of the Universe and the laws of fundamental physics, monitoring the sky in unprecedented detail and mapping it hundreds of times faster than any current facility. The SKA is not a single telescope, but a collection of telescopes or instruments, called an array, to be spread over long distances. The SKA is to be constructed in two phases: Phase 1 (called SKA1) in South Africa and Australia; Phase 2 (called SKA2) expanding into other African countries, with the component in Australia also being expanded. Already supported by 11 member countries - Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom - the SKA Organisation has brought together some of world’s finest scientists, engineers and policy makers and more than 100 companies and research institutions across 20 countries in the design and development of the telescope. Construction of the SKA is set to start in 2018, with early science observations in 2020

………and so what is the SKA? One Project Two Observatories in two Continents Australia – Murchison WA South Africa – Karoo Three Telescopes SKA Mid SKA Survey SKA Low One Square Kilometre of Receiving Area The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, led by the SKA Organisation from Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK. The SKA will conduct transformational science to improve our understanding of the Universe and the laws of fundamental physics, monitoring the sky in unprecedented detail and mapping it hundreds of times faster than any current facility. The SKA is not a single telescope, but a collection of telescopes or instruments, called an array, to be spread over long distances. The SKA is to be constructed in two phases: Phase 1 (called SKA1) in South Africa and Australia; Phase 2 (called SKA2) expanding into other African countries, with the component in Australia also being expanded. Already supported by 11 member countries - Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom - the SKA Organisation has brought together some of world’s finest scientists, engineers and policy makers and more than 100 companies and research institutions across 20 countries in the design and development of the telescope. Construction of the SKA is set to start in 2018, with early science observations in 2020

International effort in Signal and Data Transport Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia Academic and Research Network (AARNet), Australia University of Western Australia, Australia Tsinghua University/ Peking University, China National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) / Tata Consulting, India Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), The Netherlands Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE), The Netherlands Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), Portugal SKA South Africa Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), South Africa Meraka Institute, CSIR, South Africa EM Software and Systems (EMSS), South Africa University of Granada, Spain University of Manchester, UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), UK DANTE, UK The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, led by the SKA Organisation from Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK. The SKA will conduct transformational science to improve our understanding of the Universe and the laws of fundamental physics, monitoring the sky in unprecedented detail and mapping it hundreds of times faster than any current facility. The SKA is not a single telescope, but a collection of telescopes or instruments, called an array, to be spread over long distances. The SKA is to be constructed in two phases: Phase 1 (called SKA1) in South Africa and Australia; Phase 2 (called SKA2) expanding into other African countries, with the component in Australia also being expanded. Already supported by 11 member countries - Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom - the SKA Organisation has brought together some of world’s finest scientists, engineers and policy makers and more than 100 companies and research institutions across 20 countries in the design and development of the telescope. Construction of the SKA is set to start in 2018, with early science observations in 2020

Funded by international members Australia Canada China Germany India, Italy New Zealand South Africa Sweden The Netherlands United Kingdom Already supported by 11 member countries - Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom - the SKA Organisation has brought together some of world’s finest scientists, engineers and policy makers and more than 100 companies and research institutions across 20 countries in the design and development of the telescope. Construction of the SKA is set to start in 2018, with early science observations in 2020. Australia: Department of Industry Canada: National Research Council China: National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research India: National Centre for Radio Astrophysics Italy: National Institute for Astrophysics New Zealand: Ministry of Economic Development South Africa: National Research Foundation Sweden: Onsala Space Observatory The Netherlands: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research United Kingdom: Science and Technology Facilities Council Note No USA Led by the SKA Organisation from Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK

The data it will generate? 15 million 64GB ipods every day! Lewis Ball, Director of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Marsfield, Australia: "The management of big data is now a challenge faced by researchers worldwide. For example, once fully operational, our ASKAP telescope (one of the SKA precursor telescopes) will generate about five petabytes of data per year. Big computing resources will support this vital scientific research, expand capabilities and enable exciting new discoveries - not only for astronomy but also other data-intensive investigations right across the scientific spectrum."

or 960 Petabytes or almost an Exabyte every day Pawsey Center Perth WA, Todays storage = 5 Pb image 5 of these every day

…but how to get that data?

AARNet’s role in building the SKA network Geraldton Radio quiet zones extend out to 260km from the Murchison Radioastronomy observatory.

450kms of red dirt 450 kms of red dirt

……rocks, and

and rain! AARNet became the rain god.

The SKA and the network USA and World ASIA and Europe SKA Core AARNet Network Existing and Future for raw data transport Required New Zealand International Capacity for raw data transport SKA remote stations SKA Core Dishes International R+E Capacity Existing and Future for sharing Data and Results SKA Core Auckland Pawsey Centre Supercomputer

We ate the elephant a bite at a time…….

…and how to move it across vast distances 15 Europes

……………or 12 Australia’s

SXTransPORT 100Gbps to the US

Costs for international capacity to support the SKA One radio astronomy project with observatories with 3 instruments. Most likely places for post compute is China, Europe, Eng Italy Germany and Netherlands also Canada not yet USA. SA would do local processing in SA NZ in Australia More likely to cross correlate the data from Australia with the Hubble than the SA data.

Being at the bottom of the world has certain advantages – network connectivity is not one…..