The Trans-Tasman eVLBI project uses KAREN to link Australian and New Zealand radio telescopes creating a virtual telescope with a diameter of many thousands of kilometers.

KAREN will enable real time transfer of 1 gigabit per second of radio astronomical (eVLBI) data across the Tasman.  This will allow increased detail of astronomical sources in real time represented through visualisation middleware and allow astronomers to reduce the time to get astrophysically important results from weeks to minutes.

New Zealand’s participation in world-leading eVLBI radio astronomy is being advanced by the existence of KAREN. This type of astronomy, very long baseline interferometry, is a technique that links radio telescopes to create a virtual radio telescope with a diameter of many thousands of kilometres.

Professor Sergei Gulyaev and his team of researchers from the Auckland University of Technology’s Centre for Radio Physics and Space Research were awarded a grant of $290,000 from the first round of the Capability Build Fund to utilise the speed and capacity of KAREN to simultaneously correlate and visualise large amounts of radio astronomical data from a number of radio telescopes in New Zealand, Australia and around the world.

“KAREN will advance real time radio astronomy through greatly improving communication and data sharing between New Zealand and Australian radio astronomers," says Sergei.

A data transfer revolution

Data from New Zealand will cross the Tasman at a speed of 1 gigabit per second using the Southern Cross cable to the Australian telescopes that operate on the Australian research and education network, AARNET.

The easy transfer of large amounts of eVLBI data was not feasible prior to KAREN – databases had to be physically delivered to supercomputer centres that produced the results up to two months after an astronomical event.

“Through greatly improved communication and data sharing between New Zealand and Australian radio astronomers, KAREN will enhance the contribution New Zealand researchers can make to the proposed Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project,” says Sergei.

Getting schools in on the action

The project will also involve students in New Zealand schools by allowing them to observe visualisations of astronomical events as they unfold.

For example, it will be possible for the students to see 300 colour pictures of light dating from 3 to 4 billion years before the earth existed. This also presents students with opportunities to study unique transient events like supernova explosions and active galaxies outbursts in real time.

Jubilation following first fringes, demonstrating the success of the New Zealand (CRSR) VLBI system. In the control room of the Mt Pleasant Observatory near Hobart, very soon after sunrise on 26 August 2005 are (from left to right) Mr Adam Deller (Swinburne), Prof Sergei Gulyaev (AUT), Mr Tim Natusch (AUT), Mr Brett Reid (University of Tasmania), and Mr Eric Baynes (University of Tasmania). Not shown is Dr Steven Tingay (Swinburne). Photo: Steven Tingay

 

 

 

 

More information

http://www.crsr.ac.nz
http://www.skanz.org

Updated: 12 October 2007