3rd RSIH&SWA Workshop – Morelia, Mexico – 21 October 2015

Radio Heliophysics with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

M.M. Bisi (Mario.Bisi@stfc.ac.uk) (1), R.A. Fallows (2), D. Oberoi (3),

E. Kontar (4), D. Maia (5), and the SKA Solar, Heliospheric, &

Ionospheric (SHI) Science Working Group (SWG).

(1) RAL Space, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot,

Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, England, UK

(2) ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

(3) NCRA-TIFR, India

(4) Glasgow, Scotland, UK

(5) FCUP, Portugal

Outline

What is the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)?

Heliophysics Opportunities with the SKA

Solar, Heliospheric, and Ionospheric (SHI)

Science Working Group (SWG)

SKA Books Advertisement

Summary

What is the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)?

All information and images are taken from the SKA WebPages

(https://www.skatelescope.org/) and SKA presentations.

The SKA (1) The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio

telescope ever built providing more collecting area and

sensitivity than ever before. The system will be built in two stages: SKA1 and SKA2 (the

latter will be the full system and subject to the success of SKA1). The SKA will be split into multiple components (LOW, MID,

dishes, dipoles, aperture arrays, etc…) as well as being split

across two continents (Africa and Oceania) in two countries:

South Africa and Australia; as well as having its Head Office in

the UK in Europe. Several Precursor (e.g. LOFAR) and Pathfinder (e.g. MeerKAT

and ASKAP) radio telescopes have formed initial testbeds for the

final SKA designs and concepts.

The SKA (2) SKA1-MID, Karoo, South Africa: 133 SKA1 15m dishes and 64

13.5m MeerKAT dishes; maximum baseline ~150km (a fall back

of 120km as an option). SKA1-MID Bands: 2 (0.95–1.76 GHz), 5 (4.6–14(24) GHz), and

1 (0.35–1.1 GHz). SKA1-LOW, Murchison, Australia: 130,000 dipoles (512

stations x 256 antennas); 50–350 MHz frequency range. Final SKA2 numbers will be much higher but have not fully

been finalised and will be science and cost driven. SKA1-LOA will have ~65km (or up to ~80km) maximum

baselines and a large areal concentration in core. SKA-LOW will have up to 500 tied-array beams and SKA-MID

up to 1,500 tied-array beams.

The SKA (3)

The SKA (4)

All information and images are taken from the SKA WebPages

(https://www.skatelescope.org/) and SKA presentations.

The SKA (5)

Comparisons in (clockwise

from above) sensitivity,

survey speed, and resolution

of the SKA1 and SKA2 with

various other radio-telescope

systems.

SKA Member Countries/Organisations Australia: Department of Industry and Science Canada: National Research Council China: Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s

Republic of China India: National Centre for Radio Astrophysics Italy: National Institute for Astrophysics New Zealand: Ministry of Economic Development South Africa: National Research Foundation Sweden: Onsala Space Observatory The Netherlands: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific

Research United Kingdom: Science and Technology Facilities Council Non-member countries with an interest: Brazil, France, Japan,

Malta, South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and USA.

Heliophysics Opportunities with the SKA

SKA Heliophysics (1)

The solar spectrum (highlighting both active- and quiet-Sun

components from ~1Hz to ~1THz).

SKA Heliophysics (2) Solar and coronal science targets include the quiet Sun, quasi-

periodic oscillations (QPOs), active region (AR) dynamics,

particle acceleration, shocks, coronal heating, and radio bursts. Heliospheric science would include both interplanetary

scintillation (IPS) and heliospheric Faraday rotation (FR) with

the aims of specifying to the highest accuracy the velocity,

density proxy, and three-component magnetic fields for detailed

scientific solar-wind and coronal mass ejection (CME) studies. Ionospheric science would be far reaching to aid other users in

accounting for the ionosphere and variations in signals

(scintillation and FR) due to a varying ionosphere, as well as

investigations into the nature of the ionosphere itself and its

precise form (such as “tubes” recently discovered in MWA data

producing varying gradient fields – Loi et al., GRL, 2015).

Solar, Heliospheric, and Ionospheric (SHI) Science Working Group (SWG)

SKA SHI SWG Formally established in May 2015. ~60 members from 22 countries across all six (traditional)

fully-inhabited continents. Scientific interests by % are solar and coronal (including radio

bursts, CME initiations, etc…) 83%, heliospheric 10%, and

ionospheric 6%. In terms of data requirements, solar are ~0% commensal whereas

both ionospheric and heliospheric are ~100% commensal

(meaning that there are other groups interested in the same

data/observing modes as those interested in conducting

heliospheric and ionospheric science. A caveat however for commensality is that we may still want to

operate on a trigger for certain studies – but this may lie in the

PI-led science and not in the KSP(s) science.

SKA Books Advertisement

SKA Books Advertisement A new two-volume book containing 135 chapters, 2,000 pages of

SKA science, with 1,200 contributors to the book (see:

https://www.skatelescope.org/books/). This includes just one

solar-heliosphere chapter and several planetary-related chapters.

Summary

Working towards one or more Key Science Projects (KSP) – but

these are not your typical KSPs in the way in which they are to be

structured.

Heliophysics (including space weather science) separated out into

the three main components of solar, heliospheric, and ionospheric

science.

If you want to get on the mailing list or get more-actively

involved, then contact one of the current (2015-2017)

SKA SHI SWG Chairs (Divya Oberoi or Eduard Kontar) and see:

http://astronomers.skatelescope.org/science-working-groups/shi/

for the current list of interested parties.

Summary