Minutes
9 May 2000, Helsinki, Finland.
This meeting was held in fulfillment of a provision of EU ICN contract HPRI-CT-1999-40003 in force from 1 March 2000, under which the coordinator of the SKA activity, H. Butcher, should call a meeting at the start of the contract period to set the agenda for the studies to follow and to agree on the steps leading to consensus.
The meeting was opened at 10.30. In attendance from EU ICN contract institutes were:
P. Diamond, director, MERLIN National Facility (representing Jodrell Bank Obs.) UK
A. Baudry, director, Obs. de Bordeaux (representing Paris Obs.) France
R. Booth, director, Onsala Space Obs. Sweden
H. Butcher, director, ASTRON/Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy Netherlands, and coordinator for ICN SKA project sub-contract
J. Gomez-Gonzales, director, National Astronomical Obs. Spain
A. Kus, associate director, Torun Centre for Astronomy Poland
R. Schilizzi, director, Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe Netherlands
and overall coordinator for EU ICN contract
F. Mantovani, director VLBI, Institute of Radio Astronomy Italy
Additional attendees by invitation were:
W. Baan, director,
Westerbork Radio Obs., Netherlands
F.Colomer, National Astronomical Obs. Spain
S. Urpo, director, Metsahovi Radio Research Station, Finland
Prof. Zhao Junliang, director, Shanghai Radio Obs., China
Dr. Hong Xiaoyu, Shanghai Obs., China
H. Butcher summarized events leading to this meeting. Now that the project has been incorporated in the long term plans of several major countries and strawman design specifications are available, it is highly desirable for the European radio astronomy institutes to form a consortium that can speak with a single coordinated voice to the EU and to member governments regarding the SKA project. Development of a consensus on the technical and organizational requirements is a essential first step and there are a number of important issues to be addressed, including but not limited to:
1. Should the array configuration be optimized for the very high angular resolution possible on continuum sources, or for the high surface brightness sensitivity required for studies of neutral hydrogen in galaxies in the early Universe? Can a acceptable intermediate solution be identified?
2. Can a hybrid antenna system be conceived that will permit the full three decades of frequency desired for scientific reasons to be attained in a single facility?
3. What operational model is appropriate when one may have 100 independent measuring beams available? Our whole way of doing astronomy can be expected to change with this new capability. Several beams for a few major centers and an individual beam for each research group active in radio astronomy in the whole world?
4. There is no large international organization with a mission to promote radio astronomy. What will be the best organizational structure for this global project, during development and construction and during subsequent operation? We will be breaking new ground here and must plan our approach carefully.
The meeting decided that a European SKA Consortium should be based in broad terms on the current EU contract, although not necessarily be limited to those institutes formally named in the contract. A Memorandum of Understanding will be drawn up among the institutes to formalize the structure and procedures.
ACTION. P. Diamond will draw up the MoU, which will be modeled after the International SKA Consoritum MoU. It will be circulated with a view to signing at the next meeting.
Given the difficulty of scheduling meetings when all directors can attend it was decided to identify second persons at each institute who will be kept up-to-date on current business and who can replace their director when needed. A preliminary list of members and seconds:
ASTRON/NFRA: Butcher and Baan
JBO: Lyne and Wilkinson, with
Diamond representing the rest of UK radio astronomy
through the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility
MPIfR: Zensus and TBD
IRA: Mantovani and TBD
TCA: Kus and TBD
Obs de Paris: TBD
OSO: Booth and TBD
JIVE: Schilizzi and Garrett
OAN: Gomez-Gonzalez and F. Colomer
ACTION. TBD persons will be identified by the appropriate director.
The meeting considered the matter of its chairman, who might be expected to negotiate with international groups, sign agreements in the name of the consortium and to ensure that meetings and other activities were properly organized. It was considered appropriate that the chairman should be the EU contract coordinator for the activity, H. Butcher, at least for an initial period and it was so decided.
P. Diamond was designated vice chair.
Given the limited funds for a secretary it was decided to postpone for the rest of this year a decision on who this might be, where he/she might be located and what his/her specific tasks will be.
ACTION. Members will consider the most important tasks for the secretary. Candidates will be identified and communicated to the chairman.
A number of workshops are planned. The meeting considered the most urgent matters to be considered and agreed that at least the following will be required:
1. A general technical workshop. Plans for this first meeting have already been made. It will be held at Jodrell Bank UK on 3-5 August 2000 and will be entitled “Technical Pathways to SKA”. It will address all major technical issues and help define the most important R&D that remains to be carried out. It will not be limited to European attendees but will invite important scientists and technologists worldwide. Its attendance will be limited, however, to about 50 people.
2. A second general technical workshop. A second general workshop will be hosted by the US community in Berkeley, California, in the summer of 2001. This could be of considerable interest to the European Consortium because additional concepts for how best to implement the telescope are being studied in the USA.
ACTION. Butcher will coordinate European involvement with the American colleagues.
3. A focussed, joint science workshop. SKA with ALMA probe quite different physical conditions in the cosmos. Even so, the ultimate science goals of the projects have much in common, particularly as regards opening the early Universe to study. An important exercise could therefore be a careful and systematic comparison of what SKA and ALMA each can contribute to such studies separately, and then what they can achieve by way of added value when taken together. Comparison in a focussed workshop in which the separate and joint capabilities are taken into account might be expected to influence the design of each.
It was decided to aim for a joint SKA-ALMA workshop in October 2001, to discuss the requirements for observations at high redshift with both instruments. The workshop should focus on observations at radio and mm wavelengths but presentations from the Next Generation Space Telescope science team should be included as well.
ACTION. Baudry, Booth, Butcher and Zensus will start making plans for this joint workshop.
4. A small, European-only workshop on the array configuration. A major issue is the differing requirements for continuum and line studies. For the former maximum baselines of thousands of kilometers are desirable, for the latter no more than about a hundred kilometers. A workshop seems necessary to develop a European standpoint on which kind of science is more important to us, and to consider whether a compromise configuration can be devised that can fulfill all requirements.
Given the importance and urgency of this issue, the meeting decided to organize a small workshop in the spring of 2001, probably in Germany and organized locally by the MPIfR.
ACTION. Zensus, aided by Garrett, will organize this workshop at Ringberg Castle conference center in spring 2001.
5. A European workshop on radio interference in the SKA era. A crucial issue concerns sharing the radio spectrum with other users. To make the exceedingly sensitive observations desired with SKA current regulatory arrangements, in particular as related to satellites, are inadequate. Actions are planned on several fronts, including an OECD sponsored Task Force on Radio Astronomy and the Radio Spectrum, but a missing element is a careful definition by radio astronomers of acceptable levels of interference from other users of the spectrum. It was decided to organize a small (15 attendee) workshop to address the specifications of the radio spectrum environment required for SKA. This work will be closely coordinated with working groups of the URSI and IAU, the OECD Task Force and with the International Telecommunication Union’s Study Group 7D.
ACTION. Baan will take the lead in organizing this workshop and in coordinating its activity with other relevant groups.
The global radio astronomy community is planning formally to set up an International SKA Steering Committee (ISSC). This body’s charge is to promote the SKA project around the world, develop a management plan for the project and formulate a framework for global cooperation that is acceptable to governments.
A draft of the MoU setting up the ISSC was circulated to the meeting for discussion, with a view to agreeing the wording during a global teleconference on 23 May next (12.00 UT).
The membership of the ISSC is to consist of 6 Europeans, 6 US representatives, 6 from the rest of the world, and two at-large members. Members are to be selected both as representatives of their respective communities and as able to commit resources to the joint effort. An annual contribution of US$2000 per participant is to be charged to offset organizational costs and to support an international SKA secretariat.
ACTION. Butcher will inform Consortium members of the details of the teleconference.
ACTION. Members will comment to Butcher as desired on the ISSC MoU. He will feed comments back to the ISSC secretary for discussion during the teleconference.
Initial members from the US, Canada, Australia, China and India were mentioned, to the extent they are currently known.
Regarding European membership on the ISSC, it was decided that the six positions will initially be filled by Butcher, van Ardenne (ASTRON/NFRA), Diamond, Mantovani, Wilkinson, and Zensus. It was considered desirable to move gradually to a rotating membership. and to the extent possible to one person from each institute as all institutes become able to provide financing for the joint program. Schilizzi will initially be at-large member from Europe. The view was expressed that a high-profile theoretician would make a good second at-large member.
ACTION. Members will consider candidate at-large members and communicate possibilities to Butcher.
ACTION. Butcher will communicate the European membership to the ISSC secretary.
ACTION. Butcher will propose a procedure for collecting and paying the ISSC membership contributions from European members.
It was agreed further that the MoU setting up the ISSC be signed by the chairman on behalf of the European SKA Consortium.
The meeting was informed that a brochure describing the project has been prepared in draft form and circulated to initial ISSC members.
ACTION. Butcher will have the draft brochure circulated to Consortium members and will ensure that adequate copies of the final product are made available to Consortium institutes.
Finally, the notional timeline for the global project was presented. The main events are foreseen to be:
2000 Formal establishment of ISSC.
2002 Coordinated presentation of the project to governments globally, to include a management plan and framework for international cooperation.
2005 Choice of technical concept for implementation and for siting.
2007 Coordinated submission of proposals for funding to governments of all participating countries.
2010 Begin construction.
The meeting closed at 12.45.