Getting busy with real data
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31 March 2016
In preparation for the start of the ASKAP Early Science Program, the first ASKAP Community Busy Week was held this week at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA).
Members of the ASKAP Commissioning and Early Science (ACES) team have been holding regular 'busy' meetings since 2014, and the Community Busy Week is a great opportunity to bring in astronomers from the ASKAP Survey Science Teams (SSTs) who have a key interest in the details of the science processing using ASKAPâÀÙs bespoke data reduction software, ASKAPsoft.
The week included a mix of information sessions, providing the SST members an opportunity to make input on the Early Science preparation, and practical sessions using real data with ASKAPsoft on the Galaxy supercomputer at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth.
Topics included:
- Reports on the status of the telescope and current capabilities of the ASKAP software.
- Processing requirements for early science observations.
- Opportunities to provide input on observing strategy and data processing.
- Practical experience running ASKAP processing software.
- Introduction and hands-on tutorial for CASDA, the ASKAP science data archive.
- Coordination between science teams and the ASKAP commissioning team.
More information (and presentation slides) available on the wiki page.
Key to the ASKAP Early Science Program is consideration of how to produce the most scientific impact from observations with ASKAP-12, a telescope comprised of twelve ASKAP antennas installed with the new Mk II PAF receivers. ASKAP-12 is currently being commissioned on site at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.
Like the science produced from BETA before it, commissioning data produced with ASKAP-12 will focus on demonstrating ASKAP's unique capabilities while being used to prepare for the fit-out of the full telescope.
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