January 30, 2004 from: C. Carilli to: ISAC re: Minutes from WG chairs telecon Thursday January 29, 2004 cc: Schilizzi, Tarter Minutes are attached. If I missed anything, please let me know. Also attached is the ISAC written report to the ISSC, although it may never have reached them due to some mishaps in Capetown. Chris Carilli Socorro NM USA ---------------------------------------------------------------- Agenda for telecon: 1. Report on ISSC meeting in Capetown - Rawlings, Schilizzi 2. Report on progress on Science book a. book publisher and latex template - Rawlings, Carilli b. progress in each working group - WG chairs 3. Report on Berlin meeting planning - Carilli 4. Euro simulations and other developments - Rawlings ----------------------------------------------------------------- Attending: Carilli, Schilizzi, Dickey, Briggs, vd Hulst, Gaensler 1. ISSC meeting in capetown: Schilizzi summarized the happenings at the SKA ISSC meeting in Capetown. The meeting opened with an 'industry day' which was well attended. Areas of interesting overlap with developing technology were identified (eg. in situ power generation), and may lead to future focused workshops. A second day involved a 'convergence workshop' where hybrid designs were presented. The focus of the hybrids was, for the most part, how to obtain the required frequency coverage. Proposed ideas included: small parabolas + aperture arrays, small parabolas + cylinders, aperture arrays + luneberg lens, and the LAR design as stand-alone. The EMT and others are now considering issues such as costing, which will be presented in Penticton. The ISSC discussed and adopted the ISAC level 0 report. Some modifications may be made concerning an expansion of the 'exploration of the unknown' section. This effort is being led by P. Wilkinson. The plan is to recirculate the report to the level 0 subcommittee for final comment, then make the report public (eg. via the SKA web page). The ISSC was pleased with the outcome, in particular the focus the report has brought to the project (eg. as a jumping-off point for the systems engineering document). Schilizzi's management plan was adopted by the ISSC. The plan is to evolve the EMT in 2004/2005 into an engineering working group chaired by the project engineer (Peter Hall), plus a external engineering advisory committee. The ISAC will likely also evolve in a similar way, although perhaps on a longer timescale due to funding. The ISSC considered budgets, in particular salaries, travel funding, and funding for RFI testing. Schilizzi will have some discretionary travel funding. Budgets depend on the outcome of funding proposals in US and Europe. Site testing - an RFI testing proposal was received from ASTRON and accepted by the ISSC. Carilli asked about other site testing, such as tropospheric and ionospheric. No such testing is planned prior to site selection (still slated for 2006). Carilli pointed out that ALMA went through very rigorous site testing of 4 sites over 5+ years prior to site selection. Emphasis between now and the Penticton meeting in July will be for the design proposers to produce white papers concerning technology demonstrator projects. Schilizzi expressed some concern that so much emphasis on demonstrators that do real astronomy may distract both engineering resources and funding agencies from the ultimate goal of the SKA, and perhaps push the project back some years. He suggested that once the site is selected, one or more of the demonstrators be built at the SKA site, to be considered as a 'phase I' SKA, on timescale of 2008+. vd Hulst asked about competition with optical large telescope projects. Schilizzi said that the SKA was well represented at the OECD meeting on large astronomy facilities in Dec 2003, in particular in a talk by R. Genzel. Carilli has heard that the TMT project in the US already has hired some 20 engineers and has bought a large building in Pasadena for the work. 2. Science Book - Carilli said that an agreement was being signed with the publisher (New Astro Rev.). The latex template distributed last Fall was from NAR, although he will inquire if any changes have been made since. Dickey discussed progress in his area (the Galaxy, nearby galaxies). Finished drafts have been received from Corbelli and Brinks. Others are well under-way. The goal is to assemble these, and produce one or more chapters by the deadline (april 15). They have worked hard to maintain the emphasis on highlighting the capabilities and unique contributions of the SKA, and not just reviewing the field. Overlap on nearby galaxies is being coordinated with vd Hulst. Vd Hulst said that the 5 or 6 parts of his working group (galaxies and galaxy formation) are coming together. Sadler and Jackson are leading the continuum work, while he and Verheijen are working on the HI studies. Carlton Baugh will hopefully contribute in the former area via simulations. Kanekar will contribute a chapter on absorption line work, and Blain, Carilli, and Darling will contribute a chapter on high z CO, OH, and galaxy formation. Briggs said that progress was being made in his working group (cosmology), including the HI EoR chapters, LSS, strong lensing, IGM, variable fundamental constants, etc... Lazio reported (after meeting) that progress on transient chapter has been slow due to US-SKA proposal preparation. 3. Berlin - Carilli talked about the Berlin meeting on future large astronomical facilities in May 2004 (as SOC member). The meeting will center around reviews of future instruments at radio through Xray wavelengths, and reviews on topical areas of astrophysics (star formation, galaxy formation, etc...). There will be no invited talks on any specific facility (contributed talks will be considered). Speakers have been selected, but not yet invited. The participant list is currently predominantly radio astronomers. Schilizzi expressed desire to have contributions on the level 0 science goals. Gaensler suggested that in general the ISAC should have one or two people for each level 0 science goal keeping track of future astronomy meetings, and making sure that the case is made for the SKA, perhaps through canned posters, or mentioned in a talk. The canned posters can be generated from material in the Science book. ---------- Action items 1. Any volunteers for sending in contributed level 0 papers for Berlin? Beck has already submitted a magnetic field contribution. (All) 2. Does the ISAC want to make a statement about site requirements that might be relevant to the site testing issue? (Carilli/All) 3. Revised NAR latex template (if needed) and reminder to chapter authors about deadline. (Carilli, Rawlings) ---------------------------------------------------------------------