Auckland University of Technology's Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research (IRASR) and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at Curtin University in Perth made a significant contribution to Australia – New Zealand SKA (Squa
Auckland University of Technology’s Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research (IRASR) and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at Curtin University in Perth made a significant contribution to Australia – New Zealand SKA (Square Kilometer Array) development this week with a successful, high-speed data transfer trial.
The data trial forms part of the Australian and New Zealand governments' combined bid for the $4 billion SKA megascience project, which would see up to 5000 satellite dishes used for radio astronomy and, closer to home, monitoring global warming and assisting in the science of earthquake prediction.
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Data from AUT’s 12-metre radio telescope at Warkworth recorded during joint Transtasman radio astronomical observations of radio galaxy Centaurus A, was successfully transferred to Curtin University at 1Gb/s. It took less than one hour to transfer 0.5 TeraByte of radio astronomical data from AUT to Curtin.
This was made possible by the recent upgrade of "Karen" (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network) international connectivity between New Zealand and Australia from 155Mb/s to 1Gbit/s.
Karen is run by FX Networks and TelstraClear under contracts to the government-owned REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand).
FX Networks recently won the domestic Karen contract, displacing TelstraClear.
In turn, TelstraClear won the international leg of the government's Karen contract (the Southern Cross Cable is used for transtasman connectivity), edging out the incumbent Verizon.
Karen's new international network went live on 15 November and provides the only research link between New Zealand and Australia. The new, upgraded service provides 1Gbit/s capacity to both Sydney and Los Angeles, greatly enhancing the opportunity for Karen members to communicate and collaborate with the global research and education community.
Professor Sergei Gulyaev from AUT University says, “I congratulate REANNZ and the New Zealand Karen community for securing such a significant upgrade of international connectivity. For us, New Zealand radio astronomers, it opens up the opportunity for real-time operations and allows us to move from the technique of VLBI (very long baseline interferometry) to its real-time version, e-VLBI, the basic technique for future SKA.”
Professor Steven Tingay from Curtin University says: “This is a very important milestone towards Australian---New Zealand SKA development. Electronic data transfer for the large data volumes generated in radio astronomy is an important technique that enables the maximum science to be extracted from our observations. This milestone will allow a wide range of science to be jointly undertaken by Australian and New Zealand radio astronomers”.
Donald Clark, chief executi8ve of REANNZ says “Karen’s upgraded international network was specifically designed to meet the increasing capacity demands of our members and ensure New Zealand’s continued participation in leading-edge, international science like the SKA. We're truly impressed by the Australasian SKA community's enthusiasm which saw them take advantage of the full 1Gbit/s capacity only two days after the network went live.”
