Download Radio Imaging

High bandwidth data transfer
- the future of European radio astronomy
S. Garrington
Jodrell Bank Observatory U.Manchester/e-MERLIN UK
on behalf of the European VLBI Network (EVN)
• New astronomical
discoveries demand greater
resolution and sensitivity
• Telescope networks provide
resolution
… but sensitivity limited by
tape recording
• At faintest levels, radio sky
teems with galaxies
• Radio emission comes from
birth and death of stars,
often hidden by dust from
optical telescopes
Even big telescopes see no more
detail than the naked eye
… but network provides
50 x more detail than
Hubble Space Telescope
76-m Lovell Telescope
Jodrell Bank, UK
Demonstrations using Géant
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Rapid move to disk buffering (MIT, JIVE, Metsahovi) at 0.5, 1 Gb/s
High-speed transfer is next
European demonstrations using GEANT core network
– specialised transfer s/w using UDP
– iGrid2002: Tape/Disk 500 Mb/s transfer Man-Ams 24/09/02
– First disk-disk test Jodrell Bank(UK)-Westerbork(NL) 24/10/02
data transferred via SJ4/Geant/SURFnet correlated at JIVE within hours
S Parsley (JIVE),
R Hughes-Jones,
R Spencer, P Burgess
(Manchester)
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Dante/EVN Proof Of Concept
• Network requirements
– 5 or 6 telescopes connected
at 1-2 Gb/s each
– Real time transfer to
correlator at Dwingeloo NL
– Continuous transfer for 24hr
observations
• Agreed in principle by
Dante/NRENs
• Local loops being pursued
now in UK, DE, NL, SWE, IT,
PL
• Expect science results by
Nov 2004
Future usage (2005)
• Routine operation for up to
16 telescopes across Europe
& China at 1 Gb/s for ~50
days/yr
• Rapid response to transient
events (eg GRBs, SNe)
• Link to UK e-MERLIN
network and global VLBI
network
With a new correlator (>2007)
40 - 80 Gb/s per telescope
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Future Network
• Strong scientific and technical
motivation for e-VLBI using
research networks
– flexibility & immediate response
– reliability & faster development
– greater sensitivity via bandwidth
• Plausible network connections to
all EVN telescopes via Géant
local loops going in now
• Real-time demo by 2004
1 Gb/s from 5 telescopes
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Processed observations ~ TB/day
– remote access/processing on the
GRID: Virtual Observatory
GEANT + NRENs can enable
‘always-on’ radio telescope
across Europe
High bandwidth connection will allow
us to exploit true potential of distributed
network of European radio telescopes
(and radio astronomers!)
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