Andrew Hopkins -- EMU, ASKAP and ATCA
I will discuss the synergy between ATCA and ASKAP in the context of the EMU continuum survey.
Tobias Westmeier -- Wallaby and ATCA/Parkes
Wallaby will map a large fraction of the sky in HI with ASKAP, generating >10^5 new extragalactic sources at 30 arcsec resolution. It is intended to result in the detection of new Local Group galaxies, to investigate the effect of large-scale environmental influences in galaxy formation, to better study the formation of stars from the ISM and the impact of star formation and AGN activity on the ISM and halo of galaxies, and to better understand local cosmology, including the dark matter density field. One strong reason for an ATCA/Parkes follow-up programme is the tremendous opportunity this gives to further investigate serendipitous discoveries, including tidal interactions and dark galaxies. ATCA/Parkes observations at <1 km resolution will have much higher column density sensitivity than Wallaby, enabling deeper studies, and facilitating in-depth follow-up papers by team members, especially students. Higher resolution ATCA studies are also possible, but will need substantially more observing time because the A/T for ASKAP and ATCA are similar.
Keith Bannister -- A software correlator for the ATCA
Software correlators based on GPU technology have been growing in popularity in recent years, with a number of high profile instruments using them (LWA, MWA, LOFAR). Such correlators have some advantages over hardware correlators including better serviceability, flexibility and programmability. I will discuss a very simple feasibility study for an ATCA software correlator. We show that the capabilities for CABB could be implemented for roughly $200k hardware cost and 1.5 FTE.
George Hobbs -- ASKAP, Parkes, PAFs and Pulsars
I will describe recent work which used the early science capabilities of BETA along with the high-sensitivity and frequency coverage of the Parkes telescope to detect and analyse an intermittent pulsar. I will discuss future synergies between the two telescopes for pulsar and transient astronomy. I will also describe the plan for a phased-array-feed (PAF) at Parkes and show how that will enable studies of PAF performance on a high gain, single dish telescope.
Helga Denes -- Gas stripping in galaxy groups
The environment of a galaxy can play a major role in its evolution. Late-type gas-rich galaxies can be transformed into gas-poor early-type galaxies in dense environments. Observations show that spiral galaxies in galaxy cluster tend to have on average less neutral hydrogen (HI) than galaxies of the same type and size in the field. Recently there is accumulating evidence that HI-deficient galaxies are also relatively frequent in galaxy groups and that galaxy transformation can already start in the group environment. In this talk I will show high resolution ATCA HI observations of 6 galaxies and investigate which mechanisms are responsible for the gas deficiency in galaxy groups?
Baerbel S. Koribalski -- Science with the ATCA in the next 5-10 years
The ATCA currently operates in five frequency bands across the 1 - 105 GHz range. With CABB (providing up to 2 x 2 GHz, 9-bit sampling, + 2 x 16 zoom bands, etc) and other recent upgrades (broader bands, improved Tsys) it is an incredibly versatile synthesis telescope, capable in obtaining large mosaics and deep fields as well as carrying out fast searches / follow-up of transient radio sources (SNe, FRBs, etc). The high frequency resolution (up to 2048 channels per IF) is excellent for high sensitivity cm and mm spectral line observations, continuum and spectro-polarimetry in all bands. I will present a draft science case - to be discussed by ATUC - for the next 5-10 years with the main science condensed into three areas: star formation, galaxy evolution and transients.
Shinji Horiuchi -- Tidbinbilla 70m in the ALMA/ASKAP era
The Tidbinbilla 70m radio telescope (NASA Deep Space Station 43) at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex will continue to be the most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere at K-band in the ALMA/ASKAP/SKA era. We have recently upgraded the K-band receiver and the down-converter to achieve an instantaneous frequency coverage from 16GHz to 27 GHz with dual beam and dual polarization. This talk will overview the current status and the future of the Tidbinbilla 70m for radio astronomical usage.
There has been quite an effort to perform blind imaging surveys for radio transients, both at MHz and GHz frequencies, over the last ten years. So far these surveys have not turned up significant numbers of radio transients, contrary to what was hoped for, and is seen at other wavelengths. We believe the future lies in automated triggering from multi-wavelength facilities (e.g. SkyMapper, Swift, LIGO, LSST), which has been a proven method for discovery with other radio facilities e.g. AMI. We propose an automated ATCA override observing mode which can except triggers from a host of facilities. The telescope should be capable of setting up, calibrating itself and getting onto source as soon as possible, ideally in under 2 minutes. Our primary science targets would be FRBs, GRBs, Flare Stars and the unknown. In this talk we will discuss the technical and operational challenges to such an observing mode. We will also discuss in detail the science drivers and explain why rapid follow-up will be the new frontier in time-domain astrophysics in the future.
Stuart Ryder -- Radio Supernovae in the ASKAP era
I will outline why multi-frequency radio follow-up of core-collapse supernovae is key to being able to rewind the dying days and unveil the identities of their massive star progenitors. While ASKAP and the VAST survey will enable the first real census of supernovae in the radio, ATCA monitoring will still be required in order to distinguish the properties of the progenitor and its circumstellar medium.
Jill Rathborne -- Millimetre projects with the ATCA
In this talk I will summarize plans for Galactic and extra-galactic mm projects using the ATCA with a particular emphasis on the complementary role ATCA plays in the ALMA era.
Oleg Titov -- ICRF3 in the Southern Hemisphere
IAU Working Group on new ICRF (ICRF3) has started its work. The goals are to improve the precision, spatial and frequency coverage relative to ICRF2 by 2018. The date is assigned to create new radio frame that is ready for comparison with the Gaia optical frame. ICRF2 in the Southern Hemisphere suffered poorer precision with respect to the Northern Hemisphere due to lack of radio sources with sufficient number of observations. The S/X-band observations are currently undertaken using southern radio telescopes as the AuScope, Warkworth, HartRAO. Apart from the small dishes, Parkes 64-meter radio telescope is essential to improve astrometry positions of weak radio sources. More observations are required to complete the ICRF3 related work by 2018.
Vanessa Moss -- ATCA HI absorption science in the era of ASKAP-FLASH
The First Large Absorption Survey in HI (FLASH) will be an ASKAP survey tracing the evolution of hydrogen in galaxies through HI absorption, on cosmic timescales up to redshift 1. We expect on the order of 1000 new detections of associated and intervening absorption systems towards 150,000 bright radio continuum sources in the southern sky. For the majority of these radio sources, very little is known about their properties and structure, although this information is critical for characterising and interpreting both the detected absorbers and those which have not been detected. I will detail the pivotal role that the ATCA will play on this front in the ASKAP era, and the importance of this ASKAP-ATCA partnership for the success of FLASH.
Cormac Reynolds -- The Long Baseline Array in the Era of ASKAP
I will present a short status update on the LBA and its likely future role as ASKAP becomes operational.