Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Australia Telescope

Operated by CSIRO as a National Facility since 1990As a National Facility, the Australia Telescope provides world-class observing facilities in radio astronomy for astronomers at Australian and overseas institutions.

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Facilities

Parkes– 64m diameter single dish– Operates over many bands in 0.44 - 22 GHz– including the 13-beam 21cm receiver

Compact Array (Narrabri)– Aperture synthesis array of 6 22m dishes, 6km baseline– 1.2 – 1.7, 2.2 – 2.6, 4.4 – 6.7, 8.0 – 9.2 GHz– 16 – 25 and 84 – 106 GHz

Mopra (Coonabarabran)– 22m single dish– 1.2 – 1.7, 2.2 – 2.6, 4.4 – 6.7, 8.0 – 9.2 GHz– 85 - 115 GHz

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Facilities

Long Baseline Array (LBA)– Parkes, Mopra, ATCA– Hobart & Ceduna (U Tasmania)– Tidbinbilla (NASA Deep Space Network)– offshore facilites

Headquarters, LBA correlator and engineering development in Marsfield

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Past decade - Instrumentation

Parkes– 13-beam 21cm receiver– 8GHz receiver and surface upgrade to 54m– Wideband digital correlator– 10/50cm receiver

ATCA– 214m North Spur– 12/3.5mm upgrade

Mopra– 600 MHz digital spectrometer

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Past decade - Science

Pulsar surveys– ~1000 pulsars discovered– Double pulsar

HI surveys– SGPS– HIPASS

Deep radio continuum– Hubble/Chandra deep fields– 20GHz ATCA survey

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Usage - ATCA

Long Baseline Array (LBA)

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Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Usage - Parkes

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Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

User Profile

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Compact Array Parkes

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Publications

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Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Student training

ATNF-affiliated PhD students– Joint University-ATNF supervision– Free accommodation at observatories– Support for page charges and one overseas trip– Top-up scholarships available via CSIRO (~2 per year)

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Student training

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

ATNF Developments

The Big FiveNew Technology Demonstrator (NTD)– Part of SKA Roadmap

Compact Array Broadband Backend (CABB)– 512MHz Digital Filter Bank (DFB) operational – 2GHz available @ Mopra by June 2005– 8GHz @ ATCA by Jun 07

» Priority of broadband L/S & C/X upgrade?

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

ATNF Developments

The Big Five (continued)Parkes Methanol Multibeam 6 - 6.7 GHz (w/Jodrell Bank)– Preliminary mechanical design complete– Oct 2005 installation

ATCA 7mm system– Construction cost A$6.4M

» 50:50 cost sharing

– Commissioning Q4 2006 (w/CABB: Q2 2007)

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

ATNF Developments

The Big Five (continued)eVLBI– All stations network-ready – 512MB/s achieved

» Huygens demo» 31s photon-to-fringe

– Network connections» July 2005?

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Future Strategic Directions

ATCA– Maximise pre-ALMA window-of-opportunity

Parkes– Major survey programs

Mileura– xNTD operations

Australasian LBA– eVLBI network (PKS/ATCA/Hobart/Ceduna/Mileura/NZ)

ATNF– SKA development

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

ATNF Issues

Future of MopraExtent of engagement in Virtual ObservatoryManaging 3 sites– Investment in new technology: NBR/PKS v SKA

Remote/queue observingMajor new initiatives– Extend N Spur @ Narrabri?– 20GHz Multibeam/FPA development @ Parkes?

Decadal Plan UNSW, 17 Dec 2004

Future

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

MOPS

7mm

CABB

6GHz m’beameVLBI eVLBI

20GHz M’beam? NTD

xNTD

Narrabri/Mopra Parkes Mileura

Ext N Spur?FPA?

Pulsar DFB