29 research outputs found
Warkworth 12-m VLBI Station: WARK12M
This report summarizes the geodetic VLBI activities in New Zealand in 2010.
It provides geographical and technical details of WARK12M - the new IVS network
station operated by the Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research
(IRASR) of Auckland University of Technology (AUT). The details of the VLBI
system installed in the station are outlined along with those of the collocated
GNSS station. We report on the status of broadband connectivity and on the
results of testing data transfer protocols; we investigate UDP protocols such
as 'tsunami' and UDT and demonstrate that the UDT protocol is more efficient
than 'tsunami' and 'ftp'. In general, the WARK12M IVS network station is fully
equipped, connected and tested to start participating in regular IVS
observational sessions from the beginning of 2011.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, Accepeted for the IVS 2010 Annual Repor
Data Provenance and Management in Radio Astronomy: A Stream Computing Approach
New approaches for data provenance and data management (DPDM) are required
for mega science projects like the Square Kilometer Array, characterized by
extremely large data volume and intense data rates, therefore demanding
innovative and highly efficient computational paradigms. In this context, we
explore a stream-computing approach with the emphasis on the use of
accelerators. In particular, we make use of a new generation of high
performance stream-based parallelization middleware known as InfoSphere
Streams. Its viability for managing and ensuring interoperability and integrity
of signal processing data pipelines is demonstrated in radio astronomy. IBM
InfoSphere Streams embraces the stream-computing paradigm. It is a shift from
conventional data mining techniques (involving analysis of existing data from
databases) towards real-time analytic processing. We discuss using InfoSphere
Streams for effective DPDM in radio astronomy and propose a way in which
InfoSphere Streams can be utilized for large antennae arrays. We present a
case-study: the InfoSphere Streams implementation of an autocorrelating
spectrometer, and using this example we discuss the advantages of the
stream-computing approach and the utilization of hardware accelerators
First scientific VLBI observations using New Zealand 30 metre radio telescope WARK30M
We report the results of a successful 24 hour 6.7 GHz VLBI experiment using
the 30 meter radio telescope WARK30M near Warkworth, New Zealand, recently
converted from a radio telecommunications antenna, and two radio telescopes
located in Australia: Hobart 26-m and Ceduna 30-m. The geocentric position of
WARK30M is determined with a 100 mm uncertainty for the vertical component and
10 mm for the horizontal components. We report correlated flux densities at 6.7
GHz of 175 radio sources associated with Fermi gamma-ray sources. A parsec
scale emission from the radio source 1031-837 is detected, and its association
with the gamma-ray object 2FGL J1032.9-8401 is established with a high
likelihood ratio. We conclude that the new Pacific area radio telescope WARK30M
is ready to operate for scientific projects.Comment: Accepted for publication by the Publications of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific on April 8, 2015; 7 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables. Table
3 is machine-readable. It can be found in the source of this submissio