Minutes of the DS2-T2 Kick-off Meeting, Bonn, 10 Feb 2006

Present: Baan, Biancu, Carretti, Garrett, Guirado, Gurvits, Hagiwara,
Hansselaer, van der Hulst, Kloeckner, Lobanov, Mauro, Rawlings, Reynolds, Roy,
Tingay, Woan, Zensus

Telecon: Cornwell, Cress


All presentations are available on the wiki. Additional discussion points are
mentioned here.

1. Mike Garrett, Organizational matters:
Included some feedback from the SKADS board meeting. It was noted that the
annual report will be due in June of this year. Each institute will be
responsible for its own reporting.

2.
Cormac Reynolds,  General overview of array simulation activities:
Presentation available. It was agreed by all present that the recent reference
design should not influence the stated outline for DS2 simulations too greatly.
However, the idea of modelling the Phase 1 (10 %) SKA proposed in the reference
design document was supported. It was also decided to copy all job
advertisements on the SKADS website (action item on Reynolds to speak to SKADS
webmaster).

Steve Rawlings, Interaction with science simulations:
Coordination between DS2-T1 and T2 will be vital to the success of the project.

3. Reports from individual institutes:              

Tim Cornwell, CSIRO:
xNTD modelling has already begun and early results are available on the web.
Proposed that simulated catalogues would be more useful than synthetic images
and that a simulations wiki is required for exchange of such information. One
possibility is to use the CSIRO SKA wiki:
http://skacomputing.atnf.csiro.au/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Cormac Reynolds, JIVE:
JIVE are particularly interested in incorporating aperture array models in the
simulations software, and investigating the imaging limitations of the SKA on
long baselines. There is also an interest in space science applications.

Willem Baan, ASTRON:
WSRT, LOFAR and APERTIF should all provide relevant experience.


Thijs van der Hulst,  Kapteyn:
Particular interest in extending previous Wb work to simulating spectral line
data cubes for red-shifted HI.

Nanni Mauro, INAF:
Work concentrating on using BEST as an aperture array demonstrator. Excellent
network connections between Medicina site and large computer cluster in Bologna
a bonus.

Andrei Lobanov, MPIfR:
Particular interest in configuration studies and dynamic range limitations of
the SKA.

Jose Carlos Guirado, University of Valencia:
Will work closely with MPIfR group.

Steven Tingay, Swinburne University: 
Can provide access to large computing resources and some support for visiting
groups who will use the Swinburne facilities.

Graham Woan, University of Glasgow: 
Want to model effect of the polarization response and calibration on the key
science projects.

Leiden University:
Not present, but written synopsis was introduced by the Chairman.

4.
Coordination of working tasks (joint discussion),  Mike Garrett (chair):
In addition to the workplans already mentioned, it was pointed out that the
affect of the correlator on the data product should be considered and
realistically modelled. Tingay pointed out that detailed modelling of the full
SKA would not be feasible, and even a 10% SKA is ambitious.  

The early start of the project (June 2005) is causing some concern as most
institutes have not yet hired the necessary manpower. The stated deadlines for
some deliverables will be difficult to reach.

The first deliverable (preliminary report on configuration studies) is due 10
months into the project. Tingay pointed out that significant work has already
been done in this area.

There was some discussion of coding platforms. It was felt that it was
premature to select one particular software package at this stage, and that in
all likelihood multiple software packages would be required.


Workplan for 2006 (joint discussion), Cormac Reynolds (chair):
A list of possible work packages was proposed and briefly discussed. An action
item was placed on Reynolds to make the results of the discussion available for
further discussion after the meeting. A final agreement on a list of work
packages and participants in each is required shortly.