WS2 - Towards a detailed project proposal for Indian participation in the SKA: Science Requirements

Workshop 2
Title of workshop: Towards a detailed project proposal for Indian participation in the SKA : Science Requirements
Details: The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the next generation radio telescope, is now in the final stages of its detailed design. These design activities are expected to conclude by the end of 2018 and actual construction work of the SKA Phase 1 (SKA-1) is expected to start in the second half of 2019. Towards the end of 2016, India made an (early) commitment about its plans for participation in the SKA-1 construction. It is expected that India will play lead roles in various technical aspects during the construction of the telescope (e.g. delivery of the Telescope Manager). Early 2018 would be a good time for the potential users of the SKA in India to review the progress of the SKA science case activities in India and to plan for the future, specifically with the aim to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) which will contain the detailed plans for Indian participation in the construction phase of the SKA-1. This DPR will be submitted to the Government of India as a mega-project proposal (funded by DAE and DST), and will form the basis for the long-term participation of India in the SKA, and the funding for the same. This DPR is expected to also fold in the development of SKA science related activities in India, as well as the required HRD activities needed to support the main science objectives, in addition to the detailed proposal for Indian participation in the construction of the SKA. A suitable committee, under the purview of the SKA-India Consortium, is expected to hold discussions and prepare the DPR.

Objective: The proposed workshop aims to bring together astronomers all over India to review the progress so far, sharpen the science plans, and consolidate inputs on science aspects of the DPR. This would be a follow up of two similar SKA-related workshops organised during the earlier ASI meetings, which have proved to be immensely useful, in different ways, to the Indian astronomy community. The first workshop in 2014 at IISER, Mohali seeded the formation of the SKA-India Science Working Groups (SWGs), which have become very active over the last three years; while the second one in 2015 at NCRA, Pune resulted in the formation of the SKA-India Consortium and also saw useful growth of the activities of the Indian SWGs. In the last few years, Indian astronomers have been able to identify various science areas of interest with the SKA. These science cases have been published as articles in a special issue of the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics in December 2016. In addition, various groups have already started pilot observations with the uGMRT to get trained for science with the SKA. The two ASI workshops played a crucial role in galvanising these activities of the Indian community. 

In a similar vein, the proposed workshop is expected to provide a further boost to the SKA science related activities in the country. In addition to reviewing the progress so far and fine tuning future plans, a new focus would be identifying the resource requirement for the astronomers so that appropriate amount of funding can be requested in the DPR. These could include, e.g., computing required for development of simulations and analysis pipelines; future plans for training observations with the uGMRT and other telescopes; plans for organising hands-on workshops in India on data analysis and techniques; international travel to attend SKA related meetings. The main objectives of the proposed workshop thus would be :

  1. to proveide updates to the Indian astronomy community about the latest status of the SKA project
  2. to review the growth of the SKA science case in India and to discuss the modalities for enhanced participation of the Indian astronomers in various science areas
  3. to identify the needs and requirements of the community in order to prepare for the SKA science keeping the upcoming DPR in mind
  4. overall, to further build up on the momentum for SKA related activities that has been growing in the last three years or so
Session Information: The ASI meeting forms a natural backdrop for a gathering of scientists from all over India which would be ideal for meeting the goals of the workshop. The workshop would consist of a number of invited talks during the morning, followed by a discussion and planning session in the afternoon/evening.
Expected Participants: 50
Details on Organisation:
Organisers: Tirthankar Roy Choudhury and Yashwant Gupta