Work Description
Models of the aperture array will be incorporated in a simulations package running on the Swinburne supercomputer. Technical details of the aperture array (EMBRACE) will be provided by DS5 (Patel et al.). Discussions on how this information will be provided will begin at a SKADS technical meeting in Manchester on March 16th. SKA observations will then be simulated using model skies provided by DS2-T1 (Rawlings et al.). Access to the Swinburne facilities and assistance in using these will be provided by Swinburne staff (Tingay et al.).
A comparison of the performance of aperture arrays and focal plane arrays (being studied by Cornwell et al.) will also be carried out. Implications for the scientific goals of the SKA will be assessed based on the outcome of the simulations.
Coding platform is to be decided, but currently considering the MIT LOFAR package and CASA (python interface desirable). The CUISINE package (developed at WSRT to provide a common python-based interface to classic AIPS, CASA, Myriad, others?) may also be useful.
Work Effort
Aperture array modelling will be led by postdoc working for 3 years at JIVE (position advertised but not yet filled). Initial effort will be to model a less than full-scale SKA (~ 1%) and to scale up the simulations to as close to a full scale SKA as is feasible given the available computing resources. Some contribution to this effort will be made by ASTRON. Assistance in using the Swinburne supercomputer will be provided by local staff (Tingay et al.).
An effort to describe the polarization properties of the aperture array will be led by Glasgow, assuming PPARC funding for a postdoc is made available (Woan et al.).
University of Natal are currently working on a related project for the KAT. Collaboration to share experience and expertise is clearly desirable.