South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA€¦ · South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA3)...

Astroinformatics 2013: Knowledge From Data 13 December 2013

Sudhanshu Barway South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)

South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA3)

South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA3) A New Era of Data Intensive Astronomy in Africa

Outline !

• South African Astronomical Facilities • South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA3)

The Changing Face of South African Observational Astronomy

South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)

Optical & NIR Observing Facility- !• 1.9m telescope – still the largest (after SALT) SpCCD, HIPPO, GIRAFFE, STE4, STE3, UCT CCD, SHOC !• 1.0m telescope - imaging STE4, STE3, UCT CCD, SHOC !• 0.75m telescope – student training and new technologies (R&D) UCT CCD, SHOC, IRP [IR Photometer], User CCDs, TRIPOL !• 0.5m telescope– students & other services (e.g. night sky brightness) MP [Modular photometer] !• IRSF – 1.4m InfraRed telescope, Japanese and SA astronomers !

• Alan Cousin Telescope (ACT or APT) - MP Photometer !

Time allocation - week or weeks

http://www.saao.ac.za/



International telescopes - !• BISON - Birmingham Solar Oscillation Network (UK)

• SuperWASP - Wide Angle Search for Planets (UK) - extra-solar planet detection since 2005 (over a dozen discovered)

• MONET (Gottingen, Germany) – extra-solar planet search, also for school projects (40%)

• KELT - Kilodegree extremely Little Telescope (Vanderbilt, USA)

• LCOGT (USA) – three 1.0meter telescopes 2013

• SOLARIS-1 and -2 (CAMK, Poland) – 0.5m robotic telescopes installed 2011

• KMTNet -1.6m Korean telescope - 2013-2014?



SALT - South African Large Telescope !• SALT has fixed elevation angle (37°)

• Rotate only about azimuth axis

• 11 meter primary mirror

• 91 hexagonal mirror segment of 1 meter diameter

• Instruments - SALTICAM, RSS, HRS

• a consortium of 13 partners

• South Africa has ~30% time share

http://www.salt.ac.za/

Time allocation - seconds

http://www.salt.ac.za/



Future possibilities- !• 1 meter robotic telescope

• 4 meter telescope with spectrograph

• SALT 2 - for SALT-MeerKAT synergy science

Stellar Astrophysics

South Africa has had a long and rich history of stellar astronomy In 1833 the first ever measurement of the distance to a star (Alpha Centauri) was made To continue tradition, group is working on - • Transients e.g., novae and supernovae • interacting binaries e.g., cataclysmic variables, symbiotic and X-ray binaries • variable stars e.g., pulsating red giants, flare and R CrB stars • exoplanets

Planetary Astronomy Kuiper Belt, asteroids, and space missions

Cluster Astrophysics

Extragalactic Astronomy

South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) Research Groups


The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO)

HartRAO Radio Telescopes

26m telescope 15m telescope

for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)

Single-dish research

Two-element interferometry – new opportunity!

HartRAO operates: • 26m radio telescope for astronomy and

geodesy, Astronomical VLBI • 15m radio telescope for astronomy and

geodesy • Satellite Laser Ranger (SLR) for geodesy • Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)

receivers for GPS, GLONASS and Galileo, at HartRAO and at other locations, for geodesy

http://www.hartrao.ac.za/


SKA Africa - Square Kilometer Array

KAT-7 The seven-dish MeerKAT precursor array MeerKAT 64 dishes of 13.5 m diameter with longest baselines to about 20 km SKA 3000 dishes of 15m diameter with total collecting area of one square kilometer

MeerKAT Science Projects Team Leaders

Radio Pulsar Timing: Testing Einstein's theory of gravity and

gravitational radiation

Professor Matthew Bailes

LADUMA: Looking at the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array Dr Sarah Blyth

Dr Benne Holwerda

Dr Andrew Baker

MESMER: MeerKAT Search for Molecules in the Epoch of Reionisation Dr Ian Heywood

MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey for atomic hydrogen and OH lines in

absorption against distant continuum sources

Dr Neeraj Gupta

Dr Raghunathan Srianand

MHONGOOSE: MeerKAT HI Observations of Nearby Galactic

Objects

Professor Erwin de Blok

TRAPUM: Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT Dr Benjamin Stappers

Professor Michael Kramer

A MeerKAT HI Survey of the Fornax Cluster Dr Paolo Serra

MeerGAL: MeerKAT High Frequency Galactic Plane Survey Dr Mark Thompson

Dr Sharmilla Goedhart

MIGHTEE: MeerKAT International GigaHertz Tiered Extragalactic

Exploration Survey

Dr Kurt van der Heyden

Professor Matt Jarvis

ThunderKAT: The Hunt for Dynamic and Explosive Radio Transients

with MeerKAT

Professor Patrick Woudt

Professor Rob Fender

MeerKAT Large Survey Science Projects

The Old Way 1897

South African Large Telescope (SALT) ~02 TB/Year

Square Kilometer Array (SKA) ~106 TB/second (raw data)

The Changing Style of South African Observational Astronomy


Now Future

24 inch McClean 11m SALT SKA

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SA3 is a collaborative initiative - South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)

South Africa Square Kilometer Array (SKA)

Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO)


• NRF Corporate Executive endorsed the establishment of the South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA3) - May 2013

• Formal announcement was made on August 2, 2013 • SA3 will serve as a National Virtual Astronomical Observatory • SA3 is a member of IVOA • SAAO is secretariat of the SA3

• SA3 Management team - Lindsay Megnus (SA SKA) SA3 Chairperson Patricia Whitelock (SAAO) Sudhanshu Barway (SAAO)

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www.sa3.ac.za


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What drove the formation of SA3 !

The three primary purposes of SA3 are: • to facilitate access by the South African astronomical community

to multi-wavelength astronomical data as well as to tools for dealing with them;

• to ensure that data produced by facilities in South Africa are accessible to the international community (in a manner that does not violate any ownership rights);

• to develop human capital through schools and workshops that introduce people to data and tools of the virtual observatory

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Current Involvement !

• SAAO is leading SA3 activities - • SALT -VODAS - data archive system for SALT

• Tools & apps development

• Data archive system for SAAO small telescopes

• Data mining and VO for education & research

• SKA SA has a requirement to create a web interface both into the observation planning as well as the archive data and for many other tasks

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SALT -VODAS - data archive system for SALT

http://vodas.salt.ac.za/


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SALT Visibility Calculator Android App



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• Data mining and VO for education & research 1. SA3 & IAU-OAD has started a programme to train

students/teachers using VO workshops 2. AsTROW (Astronomy Teaching and Research Orientation Workshop)

provide hands-on training on observational & data intensive astronomy to people from Historically Black South African Universities

3. To prepare astronomy class/lab curricula for universities and schools 4. Public Outreach activities -

Galaxy Zoo, Google Sky, Microsoft World Wide Telescope (WWT) WWT workshop (SAAO-OAD-Microsoft Research)

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Provide SA community access to international multi-wavelength databases and the tools to use them effectively. !!Ensure that the data produced by the big science projects in South Africa will ultimately be accessible to the community.


Summary

Thank you

South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA€¦ · South African Astro-informatics Alliance (SA3)...

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