Signal processing at scale - GPUs enabling next generation radio telescopes W. Armour Associate Director Oxford e-Research Centre, University of Oxford. 28th July 2017 Cutting Edge Radio Telescopes MeetKAT -Sixty four, 13.5m dishes. A pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) -Fixed 128 array of 16-element dual-polarisation antennas Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) - 36 antennas each 12 meters in diameter LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) - Low frequency array of dipole antennas Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) - five 100 x 20 meter cylinders Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) - 500m radio telescope What is SKA? What is SKA? • SKA? • Square Kilometre Array • What? • SKA is a radio telescope • Where? • SKA will be built in South Africa and Australia What is SKA? Three types of telescope: • Dishes • Mid frequency aperture arrays • Low frequency aperture arrays What is SKA? Wide frequency range from 50MHz to 20GHz – wavelengths 15 mm to 6 m. Great for lots of different science! Image source Wikipedia. Authors: NASA (original); SVG by Mysid What is SKA? Phase delays are applied to signals from individual antennas Allowing many different observing beams to be placed on the sky at the same time An example of a proposed SKA configuration Station A wide range of baselines 200km Core Slide courtesy of Anne Trefethen SKA Science? SKA science • How do galaxies evolve – What is dark energy? • Tests of General Relativity – Was Einstein correct? • Probing the cosmic dawn – How did stars form? • The cradle of life – Are we alone?