xNTD SCIENCE WORKSHOP ATNF Lecture Theatre, Marsfield Site, 6 April 2005

Overview

As part of the Major National Research Facilities programme, the astronomy community was given funding for SKA technology demonstrators. One aspect of this funding is the construction of the New Technology Demonstrator (NTD), a parabolic dish with a large focal plane array which will yield a large field of view on the sky. If the NTD proves to be a viable step on the pathway to the SKA, the next stage is the construction of an array of telescopes capable of cutting edge science, which we have dubbed the Extended New Technology Demonstrator or xNTD.

The current specifications for the xNTD are for 20 dishes, each of 15-m diameter and with a focal plane array consisting of 100 elements operating over a frequency range of 800-1700 MHz, yielding a field-of-view on the sky of about 40 square degrees at 1.4 GHz. The telescope will be located near Mileura Station in Western Australia, in one of the most radio-quiet regions on earth. The telescope will be extremely powerful for large-scale surveys.

The meeting will focus on the science which can be done with the xNTD and will help to constrain some of the engineering specifications, such as the frequency range, the bandwidth, the number of frequency channels and the configuration.

Registration

The meeting will be held in the Lecture Theatre on the Marsfield site of the ATNF. Morning and afternoon teas and lunch on the 6th will be provided in the Canteen for all participants. Anyone wishing to attend should contact Simon Johnston (Simon.Johnston@csiro.au) so that we know the numbers for catering purposes.

Scientific Program

The meeting will start at 9.30am and finish at 5.30pm on April 6th.

Session 1 Chair : Jim Lovell
09:30 - 09:35 Jim Lovell : Welcome on behalf of ATUC
09:35 - 09:50 Simon Johnston (ATNF) : xNTD specifications and timelines
09:55 - 10:15 Naomi McClure-Griffiths (ATNF) : Galactic HI surveys
10:20 - 10:40 Anne Green (USyd) : Galactic continuum surveys
10:40 - 11:00 Morning Coffee/Tea

Session 2 Chair : Elaine Sadler
11:00 - 11:20 Carole Jackson (ATNF) : xNTD Continuum Survey Science - the NVSS survey once-a-day
11:25 - 11:45 Melanie Johnston-Hollitt (UTas) : Polarization
11:50 - 12:10 Jim Lovell (ATNF) : The variable sky
12:15 - 12:35 Simon Johnston (ATNF) : Transients
12:40 - 13:30 Lunch

Session 3 Chair : Rachel Webster
13:30 - 13:50 Baerbel Koribalski (ATNF) : All-sky HI surveys
13:55 - 14:05 Erik Muller (ATNF) : HI in the Magellanic System
14:05 - 14:25 Lister Staveley-Smith (ATNF) : Deep HI surveys
14:30 - 14:50 Elaine Sadler (USyd) : HI absorption surveys
14:55 - 15:15 Brian Boyle (ATNF) : Optical and radio surveys
15:20 - 15:40 Afternoon Coffee/Tea

Session 4 Chair : Dave Jauncey
15:40 - 16:00 Rachel Webster (UMelb) : The Low-Frequency Demonstrator
16:05 - 16:25 Ron Ekers (ATNF) : Wide field VLBI
16:30 - 16:50 Steve Ord (USyd) : Pulsar surveys
16:55 - 17:15 Frank Briggs (RSAA) : OH Megamaser surveys
17:20 - 17:30 Discussion and Wrap-up

Speakers

All speakers should email their contributions to at_meetings@atnf.csiro.au before April 6th. This will allow people at the remote sites to access your talk.

Other Details

Limited teleconference lines will be available. Please email me if you will be listening in remotely.