Both Australia and India have a rich and strong tradition of front-line work in scientific and technical aspects of Radio Astronomy. Several colleagues from India and Australia are already working together at various levels. There is considerable scope for working more closely in collaboration on several topics of mutual interest. Furthermore, both countries are contributing significantly to the construction of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), and have significant experience with building, operating and pursuing science with the SKA precursors and path-finder instruments – the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) in India, and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and the Australian SKA Path-finder (ASKAP) in Australia. The main aim of this meeting is to identify areas of synergy that can be built up into meaningful and effective collaborations going forward.

This workshop has been given the name ARDRA, an approximate acronym for Australia-India Research and Development in Radio Astronomy. Ardra is the Sanskrit name for the region of the sky (nakshatra) which contains the western constellation of Orion, and is depicted in the logo.

The topics to be covered will include both science and engineering / technology development aspects where there is scope for collaboration – either ongoing or future potential. The science topics are expected to include :

  •     Solar radio physics
  •     Pulsars and transients
  •     Electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves
  •     The cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization
  •     Galaxies and clusters of galaxies
  •     Extra-galactic deep fields
  •     Science prospects with Indo-Australian VLBI

On the algorithms, engineering and technology development fronts, the topics of  mutual interest are expected to include :

  • Design and implementation of next generation of calibration and imaging algorithms to enable quality science with the current and future radio telescopes  
  • Designing the next generation of instrumentation for existing and new facilities    
  • Developing joint VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) capability between Indian and Australian radio observatories    

    Prospects for collaboration between India and Australia for construction phase of SKA1, covering areas of antennas and electronics, digital processing systems, software, computing and SKA data center.

The program is envisaged as a three day meeting with roughly equal split between science and technology related sessions. Sufficient time will be devoted to discussions on topics of common interest and plans for collaborations.

 

 

Starts
Ends
Asia/Kolkata
Pune
Lonavala, Pune