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NRAO SKA Minutes: September 24, 2007 |
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Attendees
- Butler, Cotton, Fisher, Kellermann, Myers, Norrod, Perley, Ransom, Ulvestad,
Walker
Agenda
- Purpose, membership, and meetings of NRAO SKA working group
- Results of Chicago-3 meeting
- PrepSKA and TDP activities
- Plans for Manchester meetings
- Communication and coordination among NRAO SKA WG
- Other business
Notes
- Purpose, membership, meetings
- Draft NRAO SKA Position (prepared based on meeting discussion, and approved by NRAO Director):
- SKA is an umbrella program for cm/m wave instrument
and telescope development over the next 25 years; this ultimately
may result in several telescopes under the SKA Program.
- The primary
instrument to be proposed to the next decadal survey represents
the "SKA-mid" science,
nominally the Radio Synoptic Survey Telescope. NRAO will play
a significant role in drafting the decadal case, including development
of engineering design and cost estimates, with the instrument to
be built in Australia or South Africa. Decadal proposal will include
a funding request that may amount to less than 1/3 the total cost
of SKA-mid. Open skies will be required, and include the assumption
that US may contribute more than 1/3 to SKA-high. The exact staging
of the full SKA-mid vs. the Phase I (~10%) SKA-mid will be determined
as part of the proposal preparation.
- NRAO separately will participate
in a plan to develop technology for the high-frequency SKA in the
next decade, and will exploit our new telescopes as scientific
pathfinders for SKA-high. The goal of this plan will be to be prepared
to propose SKA-high to the 2020 decadal survey, not necessarily
at the same site as SKA-mid, and perhaps as a build-out from EVLA.
- NRAO
will seek opportunities for technical collaborations (including
hardware, software, data-handling, algorithms, etc.) that advance
the above goals. These technical collaborations may include, but
are not limited to, TDP and PrepSKA.
- Results of Chicago-3 meeting
Incorporated in draft position above. Makeup of US SKA Consortium team to write
the decadal committee submissions is Bower, Cordes, Henning, Lazio (chair),
Myers, Preston, Terzian (ex-officio), Ulvestad. Myers and Ulvestad will coordinate
additional NRAO input via the NRAO SKA Working Group.
- PrepSKA and TDP activities
Incorporated in draft position above. Feeling in the NRAO group is that we
could not afford to send people to Manchester now without compromising our
own activities, but that this might be possible in a year. A strongly suggested
option is that the best way for the PrepSKA team to learn from EVLA is for
some individuals to come to Socorro for a couple months, rather than sending
one person to Manchester.
- Plans for Manchester meetings
Agreement to draft an NRAO position, which has been included in report on first
agenda item above, and approved by NRAO Director. Suggestion that attendees
send reports to Ulvestad, who will assemble into a single NRAO report on
the Manchester SKA meetings.
- Communication and coordination among NRAO SKA WG
Discussion of individual e-mail aliases vs. reviving the nrao-ska exploder.
Ulvestad has sent around a separate note advocating subscription to the nrao-ska
mailing list (moderated by Walker). Telecons should happen approximately
every two months, or as events warrant. For instance, there should be a telecon
after the Manchester SKA meetings and before the US SKA Consortium meeting
on November 30. Ulvestad will suggest telecon times and set up the meetings.
- Other business
None.
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Modified on
Tuesday, 13-Nov-2007 07:24:30 MST
by Taylor Johnson
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