Meeting: Deep Surveys of the Radio Universe with SKA Pathfinders
Date
31 March - 4 April 2008
Location
The University of Western Australia
Outline
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and its associated pathfinder
facilities will be premier astronomical facilities in the next
decade and beyond, working alongside facilities such as ALMA,
JWST and the next generation of giant optical telescopes. The SKA
will be capable of peering into the distant past, studying the
origin of the first stars and galaxies, studying the clustering
and evolution of galaxies, making precise measurements of dark
energy at different epochs, making exquisitely precise
measurements of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity,
and studying the formation of planets around stars.
Building these expensive instruments (the SKA budget is likely
to be A$1.8 billion) requires the development of new technologies
including new electromagnetic array designs, digital signal
processing and photonics, as well as new imaging and calibration
techniques. Furthermore, telescope design and optimisation
requires deep insights into the science requirements of key
astrophysical observations.
This conference is timely due to the extensive development and planning now occurring for a number of major SKA pathfinder projects such as ASKAP, MWA, MeerKAT, Apertif, LOFAR and the ATA, and the importance of using the knowledge gained to assist the design and development of the SKA. The primary topics to be addressed in this conference
are:
- The potential of international SKA pathfinders to address
key questions in astrophysics using deep wide-field radio
surveys of the Universe.
- The state of theoretical models and predictions and the
ability of pathfinder radio surveys to provide suitable
observational discriminants.
- Synergy of radio surveys with ground- and space-based
surveys across a broad range of wavelengths.
- The technological challenges related to imaging the
Universe through the distorting effect of the telescope’s
optics and the Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere.
The meeting will be held alongside meetings of the
International SKA Steering Committee and the Calibration and
Imaging Task Force of the SKA Engineering Working Group. More DetailsVisit the conference web site at http://ska2008.ivec.org
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