The SKA community converged on Shanghai last month for the annual SKA
Meeting. The focus of the meeting was on the immediate and long-term
future of the SKA telescopes, from procurement to commissioning and
operations. In addition to design previews and talks on precursor,
pathfinder and peer projects, there were sessions on the latest
developments towards the network of SKA Science Regional Centres
(SRCs). These SRCs will be supercomputing facilities dotted around the
globe that will be processing and hosting hundreds of petabytes of
data, acting as the final interface with the end users, namely the
scientists and astronomers. Each day commenced with a science talk,
addressing major topics in the SKA’s science case, delivered by
an astronomer in that field. A large delegation attended from
Australia, presenting results from the work of the design consortia,
and the pathfinder and precursor telescopes including the MWA and ASKAP.
|